


Trixie's Halloween Bash

by tellemonstar



Category: Lucifer (TV)
Genre: Case Fic, Established Chloe Decker/Lucifer Morningstar, Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff, Future Fic, Gen, Halloween Costumes, Haunted House, Lucifer Morningstar Being Lucifer Morningstar (Lucifer TV), Serial Killer, Step-Devil!, crime-solving devil, halloween party, teenager!Trixie, teenagers being cheeky
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-27
Updated: 2021-02-01
Packaged: 2021-03-09 04:00:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 17
Words: 64,584
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27218323
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tellemonstar/pseuds/tellemonstar
Summary: Trixie's school has to cancel their annual Halloween party and her Step-Devil! saves the day. Also Chloe and the crime gang deal with a difficult to solve case. Set a few years in the future - established Deckerstar for about 5 years, so Trixie's about 15/16 years old. Another gift!fic for detectivemorrningstar -aka Ava. That's right, you got two fics - there were lots of plot bunnies. Also candy corn prompt.
Relationships: Amenadiel & Linda Martin (Lucifer TV), Chloe Decker & Lucifer Morningstar, Chloe Decker & Trixie Espinoza, Chloe Decker/Lucifer Morningstar, Dan Espinoza & Trixie Espinoza, Dan Espinoza/Original Female Character(s), Ella Lopez & Original Male Character(s), Eve/Mazikeen (Lucifer TV), Trixie Espinoza & Lucifer Morningstar
Comments: 76
Kudos: 124
Collections: TDN's Incredible Exchange 2020





	1. Bumps In The Night

**Author's Note:**

  * For [detectivemorrningstar](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=detectivemorrningstar).

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's Taco Night for our Devil and his favourite girls. Trixie's school Halloween party has been cancelled. Step!Devil Lucifer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> teenage!Trixie. Also Taco Night.
> 
> 10/Jan/21: just some minor spelling and grammar changes.

“Mom!” Trixie flung herself into the passenger seat of her mother’s car. “They’re going to cancel the Halloween party!” 

Chloe glanced at Trixie, noticing her daughter’s face was sulky and her eyes fierce. “Why’s that, monkey?”

“Well, they were supposed to repair the gymnasium roof, but now its full of asbtoes? Asbetos?” Trixie stumbled over the word.

“Asbestos,” Chloe supplied

“Yeah, that stuff, and the gym has to stay closed until they clean it up and fix it. It’s going to take a couple of weeks - Halloween is Saturday! Unless they can find somewhere that won’t cost anything and has enough room to host an entire school, it’s going to be cancelled,” Trixie sighed hugely. She’d been looking forward to her school’s Halloween party for weeks. All the kids in her school had been. Costumes had been discussed, planned and plotted - everyone had been on their best behaviour because otherwise they couldn’t attend the party, and now no one would be able to. 

“I’m sure they’ll come up with something Trix,” Chloe said, an idea forming in the back of her mind. “So chicken or beef tacos for dinner?”

“Chicken,” Trixie huffed out a breath. They stayed silent for the next 10 minutes, Chloe allowing her daughter brooding time while she thought about some parts of the case they were investigating - two gruesome murders at local haunted houses. The problem was that they weren’t able to figure out how the killer was connected to any of the victims, as there wasn’t a single connection between the victims or their families that they could find yet. Close to their apartment, Trixie asked, “Have you heard from Dad?”

“Yeah, babe. He said he’d called you tonight after dinner. He’s learnt some interesting stuff at the work conference, apparently.” Dan had gone to a three-day professional development seminar that he was long overdue to attend, and wouldn’t be back until the following evening, as he’d also chosen to take a few days for himself just to balance out again. Chloe thought it would do him good - after some interesting personal developments and then a rough couple of cases simultaneously, Dan had been particularly haggard looking lately. 

“Is Lucifer coming?” Trixie hoped so. At least he’d do something that would make her laugh, even if it wasn’t intentional. 

“He should be.” Chloe was fairly certain her Devil would show for Taco Tuesday, but if something came up at LUX, he may not. Just then her phone buzzed in her pocket, signalling a message. She pulled into her spot in the driveway and they got out, Trixie slouching and dragging herself into the apartment like the world had sucked her dry. Chloe unlocked the apartment door and headed straight for the coffeemaker in the kitchen. She was going to need more caffeine to deal with an angst-filled teenager. Whilst she waited for the coffeemaker to do its thing, she pulled her phone out. The message was from Lucifer.

‘🌮🌮🌃? 😈🍷🍫🍰’

Thankfully, she’d had practice at deciphering the Devil’s emoji-filled messages. This one she interpreted as ‘ _Tacos tonight? I’ll bring the wine and chocolate cake_.’ Smiling, she sent back a thumbs up and turned to fill a mug with coffee. She doctored it to her liking and inhaling the aroma of fresh coffee, headed upstairs to change for the evening. 

Trixie listened as her mother made herself coffee and went upstairs. She should have been doing her maths homework, but she couldn’t concentrate on it. Maths and science were easy subjects for her, but today the algebra questions just jumbled together. Her phone signalled a call, and she pounced on it, happy for the distraction. It was her friend Gemma.

“OMG TRIX - what are we going to do? Mom just said they confirmed the cancelling of the Halloween party.” Gemma’s voice was slightly muffled, as if she was covering her mouth.

“What? They said they were going to try to find somewhere else!” Trixie couldn’t believe her ears.

“No good. Nowhere big enough that can take fit the whole school is available this close to Halloween. Mom is on the committee, remember.” Gemma reminded Trixie.

“This sucks.”

“Agreed. We won’t be able to show off our costumes or dances or anything, and we’ve all been practising so hard.”

“I know right. It’s just not fair!”

“Mom is pretty upset because Mr Franklin isn’t being very helpful.”

“He’s the Principal - he’s supposed to help.”

“Mom says he didn’t really want the Halloween party to happen anyway, so he’s not upset that it’s not going ahead. I overheard her talking to Harvey’s mom - I don’t think I was supposed to hear her say that.” Gemma sounded just a little guilty. “She said some other stuff I _know_ I wasn’t supposed to hear her say.” 

Trixie giggled. Having had Maze as a big influence and cops as parents, she had heard a lot of things she shouldn’t have heard. 

“Oh! I gotta go - I’m not supposed to be on my phone until I’m finished my homework.” Gemma said hastily. “See ya.”

“Bye,” Trixie said as Gemma ended the call. She attached her phone to the speaker on her desk and selected her ‘Trixie’s Halloween Jams’ playlist on her mom’s Spotify account. Lana Del Rey’s version of ‘Season of the Witch’ played, and she turned her attention back to her homework. 

* * *

An hour later, dressed in a pair of soft athletic pants and a long-sleeved tee shirt under a grey zipper-fronted hoodie, Chloe opened the door of the apartment to Lucifer, who held a small bag and a bottle of wine aloft. Chloe kissed his cheek and stepped back to let him in. 

“Detective,” he said warmly, glad to see she looked less stressed than she’d been when they’d parted ways at the precinct. He looked over to see Trixie slumped down at a stool in the kitchen and raised an eyebrow in inquiry at the Detective. 

Chloe shook her head and said quietly, “I’ll tell you later.”

“Urchin. I brought your favourite,” he shook the bag containing dessert gently, hoping to distract her or otherwise do something to cheer her up.

“Oh, hey Lucifer,” she said, barely looking up at him. Chloe just shrugged and Lucifer let it go. He put the bottle of wine and the bag containing dessert on the bench, and went to the cupboard to get out two of the wine glasses he’d encouraged the Detective to buy. Trixie slid off the stool and went to sprawl on one of the couches in the living room, idly flicking through the options on the tv until she came across an episode of the original Addams family tv series. 

After pouring them both a glass of wine, Lucifer helped Chloe sort out the ingredients for taco night. Soon the chicken and beans were being cooked, the salsa verde made, and the avocados had been prepped to be made into guacamole. He enjoyed spending this sort of quietly domestic time with the Detective and her offspring as much as he did spending time alone with the Detective at his penthouse. He found he liked making a meal with them, even when it was something as simple as tacos, and whilst he still didn’t particularly understand or like most children, the Detective’s daughter was one of few exceptions, as she was bright, funny and interesting. And now that she was older, she was considerably less sticky. 

Thinking of Trixie, he looked over at her. The normally bubbly teenager was looking decidedly dejected, even as she watched the old tv show. Speaking softly, so the Detective would hear, but not her offspring, Lucifer asked, “What’s wrong with the Urchin?” 

Chloe looked over at her daughter as she opened the pack of tortillas. “Her school has cancelled the Halloween party that they’d organised because of asbestos in the gym.”

Trixie had not spared Lucifer from her enthusiasm about the Halloween party, and he knew how much he’d been looking forward to it. “Oh, well, that is a shame. Cancelling the opportunity for the youngsters to legally carry on with the sorts of debauchery otherwise not usually allowed.” Lucifer smirked. “Dress ups, sugar highs, scaring each other. All the delights of Halloween.”

“Debauchery? Really, Lucifer, they’re pre-teens and young teenagers, there’s no debauchery,” Chloe said. 

“Hi-jinks then.” Lucifer clarified. “Why don’t they just have it elsewhere?”

“Because they can’t find anywhere this close to the day that won’t cost a lot of money to hire,” Trixie said, coming over and slumping down on one of the chairs at the kitchen bench. “It’s stupid. And Mr Franklin didn’t even really want the Halloween party to happen anyway, so he’s been no help.”

“Mr Franklin?” Lucifer asked.

“The principal,” Chloe supplied. She began pulling plates out of the cupboard and began to place tortillas on them. “I’m sure they’ll come up with something, monkey.” Chloe looked at her daughter.

“Nope. Gemma’s mom said they’d tried and everywhere that was big enough to fit the whole school was either already booked or too expensive. Her mom’s on the PTA and the Halloween Ball committee.” Trixie picked up her plate and began to methodically load her first taco. 

Chloe’s phone rang, and she picked it up. 

“Decker,” she answered, stepping into the living area to take the call. Lucifer watched her pace the living area, growing more agitated as she listened, but doing her best to hide it from Trixie. 

“Tell me more about this party you were supposed to be having,” Lucifer enquired as he began to make both his own dinner and Chloe’s as well. 

“We were going to all go trick-or-treating through the neighbourhood near school, then the teachers would trick-or-treat us through the school in the various classrooms and offices. Then we would make our way to the gymnasium where some parents would be to chaperone us at a party from 6pm - 10pm. Then it would be home time. But since the big storms last month damaged the gym roof, they had to get them repaired, and the repairmen said there was asbestos and of course no-one can go in there because it’s really bad for you, and it’ll be two weeks before the repair people are able to come back, even though the asbestos people are supposed to come Wednesday to start. So no gym, no party.” Trixie gave Lucifer the quick version of the story. 

He decided, especially once he’d heard that the principal didn’t really want the children to have a party, that he would host the party in one of the ballrooms at the building LUX stood in. There was more than enough room for them to set up trick or treat areas, and other activities he assumed would be taking place at the school. The Halloween party at Lux didn’t start until 11:00pm at the earliest so the children could all be safely out of the building - through the secured elevator to the car park area - before the revved up partygoers came for their night of debauchery and hi-jinks. It was the least he could do for Trixie, whom he respected and admired as a human.

“Give me your friend Gemma’s mother’s details. We have a party to save my dear Trix!”

Trixie’s face lit up. “You’re going to let us have our party at LUX in the club?”

“Not in the club - you're not allowed in there anyway, but in the first or second-level function areas. There’s plenty of room there, and access via the secure elevator to the garage and your schoolmates' parents can whisk them home before the grown-ups arrive at LUX,” Lucifer explained. He might care deeply for the Urchin, but he wasn’t going to lose the club’s liquor license either. 

Chloe had finished her phone call in time to hear the tail end of Lucifer’s discussion. She smiled warmly at him. “That’d be perfect, wouldn’t it Trixie?”

“Yeah! I’ll call Gemma after dinner and get her mom’s number for you,” Trixie said and took a huge bite of taco. Things were looking up now.

* * *

After dinner, while Trixie hovered in the kitchen doing the dishes, Lucifer called Gemma’s mother.

“Ms. Washburn, this is Lucifer Morningstar. Trixie Espinoza is my partner's daughter, and she was explaining to me that the school is unable to host the Halloween ball she and her fellow students were so looking forward to.” Lucifer listened for a moment. “Of course it’s not your fault - I was actually calling to propose a solution to the problem. They can hold the party at the building LUX, my nightclub, is housed in. There's several floors of function rooms and ballrooms that don’t get used very often, and can easily be made accessible only to the party attendees. The party at LUX won’t start until about 11pm anyway, and we can keep that area completely separate with the elevator service.” Lucifer listened some more and flashed a grin at Trixie who had now stopped all pretence of cleaning up, and was wearing a triumphant look on her face.

“Yes, I'd be happy to meet you all at the club early tomorrow morning to show you the spaces. If I can’t make it, Gloria, my events manager will be there as well.” Lucifer laughed at whatever Ms. Washburn has said. “Yes, indeed it does have that effect on some people. I’ll have a contract drawn up, you vet it with whoever you need to - although don’t worry about Mr. Franklin causing a fuss. I can deal with him.” The Decker girls saw Lucifer’s eyes flash hellfire for a minute, then return to their regular deep brown. 

“Goodnight, Ms. Washburn,” Lucifer said, ending the call. Looking at Trixie he said simply, “Lucky for you Ms. Washburn agreed quite readily to the idea.”

Trixie, full of bright, joyful happiness, just hugged him and grinned at her mother when the Devil hugged her back.

Later that evening, Lucifer and Chloe sat in her living room, the tv humming softly although neither of them was watching it. Trixie was in her room fielding calls from her friends about the Halloween party - both herself and Gemma had been threatened with no phone or internet for a month if either of them told their classmates before Gemma’s mother wrote up an email to be sent out to all the parents.

“So what was that phone call just before dinner about?” Lucifer asked, gently massaging the knots between her shoulders.

“Just a call from the lab. The forensic results are back on the second victim. Same cause of death, same lack of fingerprints, DNA etc except for the victim’s. The ‘ritual’ objects are from various religions and none tie-in specifically with another. We can’t identify the symbol found on the victims, and it seems there’s no ritual, religious or otherwise, that incorporates all the items found at both crime scenes,” Chloe explained, groaning when Lucifer found a particularly knotted area.

“So does two murders a serial killer make, or is it three? I don’t remember,” Lucifer said quietly.

“Three kills is a serial,” Chloe responded, yawning hugely now. She'd been working this case almost non-stop for 5 days now, and it seemed she wasn’t getting anywhere. Apart from both victims being in their early twenties and both having worked at the Haunted Houses where their bodies had been found, they had nothing in common so far. They weren’t even employed by the same company for the Haunted House jobs as one was run by a small church group for fundraising and had used volunteers from the church community, and the other was privately run and mostly hired college students who were drama majors.

“So far, we’ve found nothing that links the victims together. We finally got access to the second vic’s rooms in their off-campus housing so I want to go over that tomorrow,” Chloe said, yawning hugely. She rested back against Lucifer’s chest, comfortably leaning against him as he passed her the glass of wine he’d poured before they’d settled on the couch.

Trixie, having finally exhausted all conversation and completed her homework, stuck her head out from her bedroom.

“Night mom, Night Lucifer,” she said in the general direction of the living room.

“Night Monkey,” Chloe said, looking over her shoulder. Trixie wandered out, deciding she wouldn’t be seeing her mom and Lucifer making out, which was, quite frankly, gross. 

“Have pleasant dreams, Urchin,” Lucifer said, also turning his head towards to look at Trixie.

“Thank you for saving the party, Lucifer,” Trixie said, unusually solemn. “It was really nice of you to offer to host it at LUX, or at least in the building.” She darted over, kissed her step-devil’s cheek and ran back into her room, closing the door behind her.

Chloe looked at Lucifer, who looked part-stunned, part-embarrassed and completely overwhelmed by Trixie’s display of affection. She smiled broadly at the look on her Devil’s face. He was utterly perplexed, and it made her heart flutter. She rose from the couch and took his hand, tugging gently to make him rise. 

“Let’s go to bed, shall we?” she said.

“Alright then, Detective,” Lucifer said, snapping back to reality. The Decker girls had the un-erring capability to completely surprise him, often in delightful ways. He supposed really that Trixie had been the first human to accept him completely at face-value. He knew she’d seen Maze’s demon face when she was quite young, and rather than being scared, she had just thought it was cool. He had to laugh really. Trixie had been the first human to do a lot of things - hug him (and him to allow her to do so), paint his face with unicorns, beat him at board games (he often left her win now, as she enjoyed it so much), all without so much as flinching about his Devilishness.

While Lucifer had been lost in his thoughts, Chloe had picked up her wineglass, and Lucifer’s whiskey glass and put them into the dishwasher, and turned the television off. Lucifer put an arm around his detective and they headed up the stairs to bed.


	2. People Are Strange

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chloe investigates her killer, another victim is found.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter Titles are all Song Titles from my 'Trixie's Halloween Party' playlist which I will link to in the final chapter.
> 
> EDit: 26/Dec/20: Grammar, spelling, unfinished thoughts, etc fixed.

Everybody ate breakfast quickly the next morning, Chloe having gotten a phone call about another crime scene not long after her alarm went off. Trixie was happy to be dropped off at school early, since it would give her plenty of time to gossip with Gemma and their friend Alexis. Lucifer had called the woman who managed his clubs, Gloria Lemandy, to meet with Gemma’s mother and the rest of the PTA group at LUX that morning to show them the areas where they could host the party.

When they arrived at the crime scene, Chloe and Lucifer quickly got out of the car. It was another Haunted House so Chloe knew what to expect - a costumed performer, unmasked if they had worn one, with an as-yet unidentified symbol burnt into their forehead. Their body would be surrounded by alternating groups of white, brown, red, green and blue candles, and partially obscured by a red felt cloth. There would be old runic symbols written in white chalk around the victim’s head and crushed stone scattered around as well. The cause of death in the previous two victims had been an air aneurysm - everything else had simply been for show. The first victim, dressed as a werewolf, had been found with a silver-plated knife in their chest but forensic reports showed it had been put there post mortem. The second victim, dressed as a vampire, had seemingly been stabbed with a stake through the heart, but again the forensic reports showed that had been post mortem as well. 

Lucifer held the crime scene tape up for Chloe so she didn’t have to stoop down so low to go under it. 

“Thanks,” she said, pulling on gloves. 

“Anything for you, Detective,” Lucifer responded quietly, as they approached the building. It was an old factory building and had been fully decked out for Halloween. The outdoor lights were all turned on, which struck Chloe as slightly odd, considering it was daytime, and quite bright. An empty ticket booth stood guard near the entrance, providing a roosting spot for several crows. Lucifer gave them a flat-eyed stare and they flew off. That particular breed of carrion bird knew better than to mess with him. One of the uniforms came up to them.

“Detective Decker. Mr Morningstar,” the young female officer greeted them both. “The victim was found at 7am this morning by the business owner, Branston Holland. He identified her as one Luna Firestone, aged 25. Drama teacher at the local high school, a regular in the Halloween and Haunted House community. Straight through this door and take the second last right, Detective.” 

“Thanks Officer Daly,” Chloe said, having checked the officer’s badge whilst listening to her run down of the scene. The officer stepped back to allow them both to pass by her. Lucifer opened the door, waited for Chloe to step inside, then followed. The hall was brightly lit with fluorescent lights - some kind of thick, dark material hanging from the ceiling suggested it covered them when the festivities started. 

“Haunted Houses always strike me as sad rather than scary when the lights are all on and the show’s not running,” Chloe motioned to Lucifer to wait for a second. Something had caught her eye. A piece of red cloth, similar to what had been left at the previous two murders, which seemed out of place where it was. She bent for a closer look.

“What have you discovered?” Lucifer asked in a lowered voice. He knew Chloe suspected that the killer may have worked the Haunted House circuit, and perhaps she had found a clue.

“Look at this,” she gestured to the torn piece of cloth, caught on the sharp edge of a wooden crate that seemed to be set-dressing. “I’ll get crime scene to bag and tag this, but does it look to you just like the same stuff from the crime scenes - the red cloth over the bodies?”

Lucifer studied the shred of cloth. It was definitely the same sort of material and colour, at least to his eye. He should know. He was the one who had chosen the fabrics and textures for the bespoke suit he was currently wearing. “Yes, it does. Do you think then perhaps our creeping serial killer was near or behind these crates waiting for Ms Firestone?”

“They could have been. I’ll get crime scene to give this whole area an extra careful examination,” Chloe stood upright again. “Let’s get to the body.”

They continued down the hall. As they did, the door behind them opened and a familiar voice called out, “Hey Decker! Hey Lucifer!”

Ella Lopez, crime-scene analyst and geek queen extraordinaire (so her tee claimed), jogged down the hall to catch up with them. 

“Miss Lopez,” Lucifer said with a nod towards Ella.

“Hey Ella,” Chloe said. “Listen - there’s a small piece of red cloth on one of those crates over there - seems the same as what has been left on the bodies. Can you make sure the rest of crime-scene give that whole area a really thorough search?”

“Sure Chlo- no probs,” Ella said, unzipping her camera and walking over to the crates. “I’ll snap a couple of photos now and tag it, so they’ll see the cloth. Then I’ll get Jack to ask sure the crew examine that area really closely.” 

Jack - Jackson Murray - had transferred to the LAPD crime lab from Ireland. He looked like the sort of man you didn’t want to meet in a back-alley, but had a softer side that came out around friends and his cat Marcel. He and Ella had been seeing each other casually for a little while, neither one quite ready to commit to anything more involved than that to start with. Now though, they were offically a couple. 

Ella took her pictures and walked with Chloe and Lucifer to the crime scene. Luna, an attractive red-headed young woman, was sprawled on the ground, her costume considerably more torn that the two previous victims, probably because it had been much more elaborate - she was dressed as a nurse, complete with cap. The white uniform dress had been splashed with blood, and only some of it had been there prior to her death. The weapon that had been used on her post-mortem was a scalpel - left sticking out of her neck. The symbol had been seared on her cheek - her hairline had been too close to the brow line for their killer to have put it there, Chloe supposed.. Apart from the costume, everything that was around and had been done to Luna’s body was exactly the same as the first two murders. 

Hearing Chloe’s quiet yet resigned sigh, Lucifer looked at her. “That makes three - now we’ve definitely got a serial killer on our hands.”

* * *

After examining the crime scene, Chloe took Lucifer with her to talk to the site owner. She figured his mojo would come in handy. 

“The guy’s name is Branston Holland” Chloe began, standing far enough away from the slightly ajar door of Holland’s office that he wouldn’t hear them discussing him. 

Lucifer interrupted, “Hmm, Holland. As in Holland Entertainment Holland?”

“Well, it says here that he owns a number of themed locations throughout LA and surrounds. That mermaid place where Trixie had her birthday a few years back - where they had ‘live mermaids’, and the King Arthur themed restaurant Amenadiel had his birthday at last year. He owns both of those, plus a couple of Haunted Houses and some other places as well. So far this is the only one of his properties to be used by our killer though.” Chloe read aloud from the information she’d gotten from the uniforms who’d completed a run on Holland. 

“Yes, and Holland Entertainment is also one of the biggest producers of adult entertainment in the US,” Lucifer informed her. 

“I don’t want to know how you know that, but that may be helpful to know,” Chloe just shook her head, her ponytail bobbing along with the movement.

“Funnily enough, Detective, my accountant told me. There was a bit of a scandal a few years ago, and some of the board members and stakeholders weren’t exactly pleased to know that the Holland Entertainment name was being bandied about with porn. They separated the company from the main Holland Entertainment business, called it HEXtra Productions, and continue to this day to produce porn under the name. And some of it is on the definitely grey, almost black area of even my experiences,” Lucifer explained. 

“Huh. It could be a motive if he’s connected to the other murder victims,” Chloe said. “Still, something to keep up my sleeve to use later if I need to.”

Lucifer nodded. “Shall we then?”

“Yes.” Chloe stepped up to the door of Holland’s office and knocked twice on the door as she walked in. Holland, a man in his mid 30s with untidy blond hair and cheeks that were red and blotchy, turned around. “Mr Holland, I’m Detective Chloe Decker, and this is my consultant, Lucifer Morningstar. I need to ask you a few questions.”

“Sure. Sure. Um… do you mind if I sit?” Branston asked, looking pale and shaky still. He gestured to a small, comfortable looking two-seat couch against the wall. 

“That’s fine, Mr Holland.” Chloe let him sit down, and sat on the wooden coffee table in front of the sofa. She felt Lucifer stand behind her, on the other side of the coffee table. “You found Ms. Firestone? Can you tell me about that?”

“It was terrible, just terrible. There was a lot of blood - I didn’t know what was hers and what wasn’t. I came in to run through the ticket sales and the security footage from last night. One of the team said a couple of guys got physical over a girl to the point where the cops were called and they needed the security footage. I’m the only person on this crew with a key to the safe, and I have a key for the surveillance room so I thought I’d come in before I went to the gym and I could just grab the sales record and the security video, then sort it all out at my office downtown,” Branston ran a hand through his hair, which was clearly why it was looking so dishevelled. “I guess it doesn’t matter so much now.”

“Mr Holland, how did you find Ms Firestone? Why did you need to go into that room?” Chloe asked.

Holland sniffed softly and responded. “All the lights were on. I mean, every single one. The mood lights, the floodlights we use outdoors so people can see in the line, the fluorescents, the LEDs for the light shows, all of them. We only ever leave one light on, near the door, so whoever comes in first can find the switch for the fluorescent lights without tripping over and breaking a leg. I just figured we’d had a power surge - that has happened before and reset the lighting sequence, so I had to go room by room and check what lights were on. That’s when I saw… Luna.”

“Did you see or touch anything in the room or anywhere else?” 

“No. I didn’t see anybody and apart from the lights and, Luna, nothing seems to be out of place. As soon as I saw her, I figured she was dead. I’ve seen enough crime shows to know when somebody’s skin is that colour they’re gone. I called the cops straight away and came in here. I didn’t have to open the door to where Luna is because it was open. That’s not unusual. The crew often leave the doors to the exhibits open when they’re finished for the night. We usually have a cleaning team come in and do a general rubbish pick up and clean up any accidents people might have had. Vomit mostly, but sometimes people will wet themselves in reaction to a jump scare. If possible, we’ll herd them gently out the nearest exit and make sure they’re okay,” Branston said, looking earnestly at Chloe now. “Detective - I know what the scandal pages have said about Holland Entertainment - Lukas, my brother, made some choices I’m certainly not proud of, and continues to this day. But I just want to entertain people. Give them an experience they’ll remember and keep people coming back season after season. Why someone would murder a sweet girl like Luna is beyond my comprehension.”

“Mr Holland, you said Luna was a sweet girl. How well did you know her?”

“Not real well, Detective. There’s so many crews here - but she’s worked at this location for about 5 years, I think. I brought up her file and printed a copy for you,” Branston stated. He gestured to the printer on the windowsill of the office. “I run a full security check on all new hires. I can’t have people with violent or sexual crimes working at any of our event venues because we’re open to under 18s as well. We’ve had the odd one or two with drug or alcohol problems, but they either don’t show up and are fired, or they get sober and keep their jobs. They can’t work with the public until they’re on a sobriety program. Several of our crew are sponsors - myself included - for other members. We’re like a big extended family here. If anyone needs support, there’s always someone to lend a hand.” Branston ran his hands through his hair again. He stood up and paced, somewhat agitated by the events of the morning. “What am I going to tell the crew? We’ll close this location for the rest of the season in Luna’s memory, so if you or your evidence people need to come back - here’s the key, and I’ll give you the code reader. It’s reset today, anyway.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Oh, just that we reset the lock code for the door on a Monday night,” Branston explained. “So if the code gets out, there is a much slimmer chance of our equipment being stolen.”

“Who else knows the code?” Chloe asked, flipping to a new page in her notepad.

“Oh, um, Chad Yancey, he’s our security tech. Sidney Dustan, she’s our make-up artist and helps out on the secret exits. And Terry Hastings, my second-in-command here. I swing by first thing Tuesday evenings, unless I was here earlier, and then give them the code for the week. Or at least I give whichever of them gets here first the code. Once the door is unlocked, it doesn’t require the code until the door security is reset.” Branston handed Chloe a key fob with a digital code reader on it, and the personnel file on the victim. “Please let me know if there is anything I can do.”

* * *

  
Chloe led the way back to her vehicle. As much as she loved riding in Lucifer’s Corvette with the wind blowing through her hair it didn’t exactly scream cop. However, even though he had arrived at the crime scene in it, after dropping Trixie off for her, Chloe couldn’t see Lucifer’s car anywhere.

“Did you have someone come get the Corvette?” she asked him.

“Yes. It’s a waste having two cars, and since your car is the official vehicle, I figured you’d rather drive it. Jackson, one of the LUX valet’s, came and collected it.” Lucifer grasped Chloe’ hand and squeezed it. “We’ll find the killer, Detective.”

“I hope it won’t be too much longer,” Chloe said, opening her car door. They got in and Chloe looked up the route to the second victim, Henry Morgan’s off-campus housing. “We’ll go to the second vic’s house first, then try Luna’s.”

After a 15-minute drive, interrupted only by Lucifer receiving word from Gloria that the PTA from Trixie’s high school were delighted with the space he had offered for the party, they arrived at Henry’s apartment building. Even for university housing it wasn’t much, although there did seem to be decent enough security on the outside. Not that it would do much good as the security cams had only shown Henry leaving his apartment dressed in jeans and a tee on the night of his murder.

Chloe and Lucifer got out of the car and made their way across to the guard at the gate. Chloe pulled her badge out and said, “I’m here to look at Henry Morgan’s apartment.”

“Sure, ah Detective Decker, right?” the security guard looked at a notepad.

“That’s right.”

“I’m Pete Shaw. Mr Morgan’s apartment is straight ahead then the second of the left. 117. You need anything else, just ask,” the guard said, indicating the pathway that wove around the buildings.

“Did Mr Morgan seem nervous or afraid the last time you saw him, Mr Shaw?” Chloe asked. 

“No. I saw him on his way out myself. He was a friendly guy, never heard of any trouble with him,” Pete said, clucking his tongue.

“Thanks. I’ll let you know if we need anything else,” Chloe said, stepping forward to approach Henry Morgan’s apartment. The walk didn’t take long, and it proved to be fairly straightforward. Chloe inserted the key she had collected from the university before she went home the evening before into the lock on the door, and it opened smoothly. Inside, the curtains were half-drawn in the living area windows.

“It’s pretty sparse in here, but it also seems like Henry spent most of his time on campus. He really only slept and kept his belongings here. Let’s look for anything that might hold a clue or a link to how our killer picked him,” Chloe said, beginning to meticulously go through papers on the victim's desk and table.

Lucifer opened the kitchen cupboards and drawers, looking for anything unusual or out-of place. By now, he knew what to look for, and had learnt not to touch anything without gloves if the crime scene team hadn’t already been through. After several minutes, he stated, “Apart from a potentially unhealthy relationship with ramen noodles and three-day-old leftovers, there’s nothing in here that’s of any interest. I’ll go start looking in the bedroom if you like.”

“Yeah. There’s nothing unusual here either,” Chloe said. “Advertisements for a couple of concerts and plays, a couple of bus passes, the usual.” They walked into Henry’s bedroom together. Lucifer headed to the left side of the bed, and Chloe on the right side. They both opened the top drawers of the nightstand. Chloe’s side contained a couple of novels, a watch, a phone charger and a flashlight.

“Oh, what have we here?” Lucifer said in a saucy tone. Chloe turned her head to see her partner wiggle his eyebrows.

“Let me guess, sex toys?” she said, puffing out a breath.

“Ah yes, but not just any grown-up play accessories. These are high end, and at least two would have been customised to suit the user,” Lucifer informed her. “Like this, for example,” he said, holding up something that was made out of a lot of latex and metal.

“I don’t even want to know what that is, unless it pertains to the case. We didn’t find anything like that at Janie Peterson’s dorm or her old house, so I don’t think it will be relevant,” Chloe said, privately hoping it was not relevant. She’d learnt a lot over the last 5 years with Lucifer, but she still didn’t need that kind of thing on the job. They moved onto the next drawers, Lucifer finding an interesting pamphlet that could have been used by the killer to select his victims, and Chloe finding the victims liked to stash Snickers bars as bedtime snacks.

After finishing their search, the only thing of any interest was the pamphlet Lucifer had found in the second drawer of the bedside table he’d looked through. It was for a group calling themselves ‘The Independent Enlightenment Worshipers’ and they had put on a free lunch and lecture at the university. The symbol on it was similar to the one on the victims, although by no means exactly the same. But they felt like they would belong in a group of similar symbols, Chloe thought as she examined the pamphlet more closely. She pulled out her phone and rang Ella. “Hey Ella, since I don’t have Dan here to run stuff for me, I was wondering if you would be able to get me all the info you can on a group called ‘The Independent Enlightenment Worshipers’. And if there was anything in Janie Peterson’s dorm that is linked to them. Thanks. I’ll get the info when I get back.”

Lucifer was typing something into his phone as Chloe pulled away from the curb. He put his phone away and laid a hand over the back of hers. “I’m sure Miss Lopez will find what you need on these Enlightenment Worshipers. Perhaps one of them is the killer?”

“Or this event is how the killer chose their victims. Either way, they’re worth looking into.”


	3. Poor Unfortunate Souls

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> More victims, and maybe a copy-cat killer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's a lot of crime scene talk in this. Sorry not sorry. Blame the plot bunnies.
> 
> 26/Dec/20: spelling, grammar, unfinished thoughts etc fixed.

They had not long arrived at Luna Firestone’s small house near the school she taught at when Chloe’s phone rang. Frowning at the display, she answered. “Yes, this is Detective Decker. Okay, we’ll be there in 30 minutes.”

Hanging up the phone, she turned to Lucifer. “That was dispatch. We have another victim. At the Haunted House on 5th and Grenadine, near the park.”

“Our killer has gotten ballsy,” Lucifer said, watching the strain appear on Chloe’s face again, and squeezing her hand.

“Either that or one of today’s victims was from a copycat,” Chloe sighed and continued searching through papers on the table in the hallway. It was mostly Luna’s mail and some takeout menus.

“What’s that Detective?” Lucifer asked, making Chloe pause. He was angled away from her, looking into the kitchen with his head tilted slightly to the left. “I guess the killer wanted to leave us a message, or Miss Firestone to be more accurate.”

Chloe stuck her head around the kitchen door and read what Lucifer had seen, that the form of a giant note stuck to the fridge, “STOP OR I'LL MAKE YOU STOP. PERMANENTLY.”

“It adds a certain ‘I’m going to kill you’ air to things, doesn’t it?” Lucifer pondered. Chloe walked forward, donning a new pair of gloves, and took the note from the fridge. She placed it in an evidence bag - they could try to run it for prints.

“Yes. At least in Luna’s case. None of the other victims had anything like this so far,” Chloe said, looking around the room. “Let’s keep going. I want to see if we can link Luna to these Worshiper people. Because if not, someone took advantage of the fact that someone’s been killing people at haunted houses to silence her.”

They continued to search the house and found nothing that linked Luna to the Eternal Worshipers. They did find her laptop and tablet, which Chloe would send to the tech team to see if they found anything on it, especially in Luna’s emails or social accounts. People often thought deleting things was enough, but the tech team could usually get back anything that hadn’t been completely corrupted. As yet nothing had come back on her phone, but Chloe knew it could take a day for any results. When they had completed their search, Chloe checked her watch. “We’d better get to the new scene.”

It took about 20 minutes to drive to the new crime scene, and by this time it was swarming with crime scene techs and Ella came over to meet them. 

“Victim is an Asian male, 27 years old, identified as Takao ‘Tom’ Himi, by the guy who called it in.” She indicated a large red-haired man who was built like a viking, sitting with his head bent on a chair near the open doors of the Haunted House. “Everything is a match to the previous scenes.”

“I think Luna was a copycat,” Chloe said softly.

“You what now?” Ella said, as she did a double take.

“We found a threatening note at her house - I think someone took advantage of the fact she works at a haunted house to kill her, but I’ll know once we get the cause of death back from the coroner,” Chloe said, almost whispering now.

“Well, that’d explain a couple of things I found. I’ll show you back at the lab,” Ella said. “Meanwhile, Mr Himi is waiting for us.”

Ella walked them through the Haunted House to where the victim’s body had been found. This House had been set-dressed as a circus, and Tom was costumed as ringmaster of the circus. A whip was wrapped around his neck, to suggest he’d been choked by it.

“The whip didn’t kill him, but he was definitely strangled by it,” Ella said. She pointed to the victim’s face. “You can see the petechial hemorrhaging in his eyes, but there’s not enough to indicate strangulation as the cause of death. It probably knocked him unconscious, or at the very least made him weak enough for the killer to overcome him.”

“Yeah, because he’s not a 19-year-old girl or a short-statured man. He’s in good shape,” Lucifer observed, noting Tom’s well-defined build.

“Anything unusual about this scene?” Chloe asked Ella, knowing the crime scene tech had been over the scene.

“Nothing so far,” Ella replied. “Everything matches the first two scenes. Right down to the puncture wound in his neck.”

“Okay. We’d better go talk to the guy who called it in,” Chloe said. “We’ll discuss more back at the precinct.”

“Sure. I’ll give you everything I have - I'll have more by the time we get back there,” Ella said. 

Chloe led the way over to the red-haired man they’d seen earlier.

“Mr Larsen? I’m Detective Chloe Decker, this is my partner, Mr. Morningstar,” she began. The man raised his head.

“Lucifer?” He said, full of uncertainty and a little bit of hope.

“Anders.” Lucifer recognised the man as a former bartender at LUX. He’d left after completing his university degree as he’d gotten a job at an environmental science laboratory. He went on to explain this to Chloe. “Detective, Mr Larsen used to work at LUX behind the bar and as a bouncer while he completed his university degree. Environmental Science wasn’t it?”

“Yeah. That was about 8 years ago,” Anders said, grateful for the chance to compose himself. He looked at Chloe. “I guess you need to ask about… Tom.”

“That’s right, Mr. Larsen. How did you come to be here and find Tom?” Chloe asked.

“Mr Larsen is my dad. Call me Anders. Tom didn’t come home last night after his gig here, and I got worried this morning. We’re… we were together. He’s often late home after these gigs, especially this close to Halloween, so I just went to bed. When he wasn’t at home this morning, and he hadn’t left me a note, I got worried. I called some people I knew would have worked with him last night, and they didn’t see him after they left. I tried calling him, but he didn’t answer. Even when I sent our emergency code. So I came here. The back door was open, which is unusual since some stuff in here is really valuable so they always lock up. I called out, then started looking in the different rooms. I don’t come to these gigs as I'm not a fan of Haunted Houses. Then I found him. I didn't touch anything, except to push the back door open, and I… I could tell from how he was lying on the ground he was gone.” Anders looked at Chloe, his tear-ravaged face pale and blotchy.

Chloe squatted down in front of him. “Did Tom receive any threats or act differently in the past few days?”

“No, not that I know of and he would he told me. He was happy, We had planned a trip to see his parents' next weekend - they live in New York and we were going to surprise them with a visit. What do I tell his parents? How do I tell his parents?” The despair in Anders's voice was palpable.

“We can have a grief counsellor be with you or we can tell them if you would prefer,” Chloe said, sympathy showing on her face.

“No, I'd better tell them. It should come from someone they know. But I wouldn't say no to a grief counsellor.”

“Does the name Independent Enlightenment Worshipers mean anything to you?” Chloe asked, hoping against hope that she might have a link between her victims.

“Not especially,” Anders began. He furrowed his brow for a moment. “Wait, are they like a church or something? Because there was a free lunch put on a few weeks back by some non-denomination church group at the park near our house.”

“Did anyone there act unusual to you or Tom?”

“Not that I can recall. We met up with our neighbour, the Mulligans, before we went. We helped them with their kids and dog. They’ve got a 7-year-old and 5-year-old triplets. All boys, and they're quite the handful, especially at the park,” Anders said, smiling a little. “Tom was telling the triplets a story about pirates - he was a paramedic and the fact he was good with kids was good for the job. I kept an eye on Sparky, the dog, most of the time. Actually, now that I think about it, there was one guy Sparky growled at. He never growls or is vicious to anyone, so this was kind of surprising. His hackles were up on his neck and everything. I didn't see it, but Hannah was telling us about it on the walk home.”

“Thank you Anders, you’ve been very helpful. If you think of anything or need anything, just call me. Here’s my card,” Chloe said, handing over one of her cards. She noted she would need to refill the little card holder when she got back to her desk. Chloe headed over to the uniforms. Lucifer clasped a hand on Anders’ shoulder.

“I'm sorry about your partner, Anders. Please let me know if you need anything - plane tickets, accommodation, you name it. You were a great worker and a decent human, so if I can help you in any way, let me know. No strings attached either.” Lucifer handed Anders his own card and strode off to catch up with his Detective.

* * *

Arriving back at the precinct, Chloe and Lucifer got out of her car. Lucifer was concerned for his Detective. She was showing signs of over-work due to this serial killer. He knew she had slept poorly the evening before - and had in fact soothed her back to sleep more than once. He knew she wouldn’t properly rest until the killer - or killers, he supposed, considering Luna Firestone’s death didn’t seem to be connected - were brought to justice. He knew she wanted to be able to attend the Urchin’s Halloween party, but knowing Chloe, he knew she would likely not go if she was still working the serial killer case.

By this time they had reached the elevator and were on their way to from the garage to the homicide department. Lucifer had the beginnings of a plan but would need some help to enact it. He was pretty certain he could rely on Miss Lopez - or Ella, as she insisted since she knew the truth about him - to help him. He sent a quick text to her, Chloe deep in thought enough that she didn’t ask what he was doing.

The elevator doors opened, and they stepped out. Ella nodded at Lucifer, signalling she was in on the plan. She came over to them.

“Hey Chloe, I’ve got some more results back, and I found out as much as I could about that Worshiper group. They seem pretty benign actually, so maybe the killer is a member of their group rather than a higher-up. Any ways, I’ve printed it all off, and it’s at your desk. I’m just waiting for pre-lim COD on Luna to come back. Tom’s is going to take a bit longer, since he’s next in the queue,” Ella said. “Jack got that material fragment for you - it’s a match to the red fabric found at the Firestone murder, but I’m not sure if he has matched it to the other scenes yet. He’ll text or call as soon as he gets those results.”

“Great. I guess I’ll go read up on these Independent Enlightenment Worshipers and see if I can find anything that might give them cause to kill people,” Chloe said, heading to her desk. Lucifer remained where he was for a second, then quickly followed Ella back to her lab.

“So you’re up for lunch out of here then?” Lucifer asked. “I’d like to get Chloe away from all this for an hour. We can still discuss it, but maybe not being surrounded by crime scene photos and suspects and such might relieve some of the tension she’s been carrying the last few days. I’d like to throttle this killer just for that alone.”

Ella smiled. Her favourite couple had been through a lot, and now were in a lovely, settled relationship, and she was happy to help keep it that way.

“As long as I can bring Jack, I’m happy to go. He needs to get out of the lab more anyway,” she said.

“By all means, bring your Irishman, Ella. I think it will make the most sense if you suggest going out. If I suggest it, she’s more likely to resist. But you have a way with people,” Lucifer said. Ella laughed.

“Sure Lucifer, I’ll suggest a double lunch date. But you’re paying.”

“Of course.” Lucifer nodded and turned to leave. “See you in a bit then.”

Ella waved him off and went over to her computer, which was signalling new information had dropped. It was the ME’s report on Luna Firestone. As Ella had suspected after viewing the crime scene, Luna had been killed by the scalpel to her throat. She hadn’t had any puncture marks on her body, unlike the Janie Petersen or Henry Morgan, and the newest victim, Takao ‘Tom’ Himi. So Chloe’s theory of Luna being a copycat murder had been correct. Someone had taken advantage of the other killings to murder poor Luna as well. Ella’s phone buzzed, and she looked at it. It was Jack.

_Red cloth matches Firestone, but not other vics. Different material - this was not as good quality as what was used on the Petersen and Morgan crime scenes. Himi crime scene material matches the first two, but not Firestone._  
_Also, did I tell you how pretty you look today._

Ella had to admit, Jack was a charmer. It was that and his no-pressure attitude that had made her decide to go out on their first date, 2 years ago. His accent certainly didn’t hurt either. She texted him back: _You did, but it's nice to hear it more than once. Also interesting about the fibres. Chloe thought it was a copycat when she got to the Himi scene._

The reply came back quickly. _That’s why they pay her the not-so-big-bucks as a Detective I guess. She’s a smart cookie._

_Yeah. Listen, did you want to go to Hilda’s for lunch with me? Lucifer and Chloe will be there and he offered to pay._

_Alright. Meet you in 30 mins at your lab._

_Okay. 30 mins. I’ll send a search party if you take much longer than that, though. I know how you get sucked in._

_Setting my alarm for it. And three more, just in case. Love you._

_Love you too._ Ella sent the text and thought that it really was true. She really did love him, and he wasn’t a bad guy. He was a decent human being. She printed the initial ME report for Luna and placed it into a folder. She also added a quick note about the red rag and that the cloth used at Luna’s murder scene didn’t match the cloth from the other scenes. She began dusting the note found on Luna’s fridge for prints and then sent them into the system to see if there was a match. It would take a little while for them to come back, Ella decided, moving onto the next item on her list. She’d just begun to line up the rocks found at the third crime scene to examine under her microscope, when the fingerprint analysis beeped.

“What’s happening here?,” she wondered aloud, going over to the computer. MATCH FOUND read the message on the screen. “Boo yah!” Ella opened the file that showed the fingerprint match - apart from Luna’s fingerprints, there was another set, belonging to a Marcus Langrove. Ella printed off that information as well, so she could give it to Chloe at lunch. She checked her watch. 15 minutes until Jack would meet her. She decided to go and ‘suggest’ to Chloe they go for lunch now, in case she needed to persuade her friend.

* * *

Chloe had almost automatically rejected the idea of going for lunch, but then decided that maybe it would be good to get away from crime scenes and suspects to clear her head, and agreed much quicker than either Lucifer or Ella had been prepared for. She stretched and stood up from her desk, pulling her blazer back on. She picked up her phone, and it beeped in her hand.

_Hey Chloe. Just wanted to let you know I’m on my way home from the conference and Penny will pick up Trixie then me tonight if that suits you. Dan._

_Trixie will be glad to see you. I’m fine with that plan. I’m pretty busy with this case at the moment, so I’m sure Trixie will be relieved to have a normal school drop-off tomorrow instead of an early one._

_I’m back at work tomorrow so you can fill me in then. I’ll let Trix know about tonight’s plans._

_Okay, thanks._

Chloe turned to Lucifer. “That was Dan. He’s on his way home from the conference. He and Penny will take Trixie tonight - Penny will pick Trixie up from school then take her to pick up Dan from the airport. At least she won’t have to go to school early tomorrow. Plus, she’ll be glad to have her dad home.”

Lucifer smiled at his Detective. “Well, as long as she is happy then all is well. Now, let’s find Ella and her Irishman and go to lunch.”

Ella came out of her lab at that moment, heading towards them. “Jack’s going to meet us here in a minute. He’s just leaving the lab now.”

They waited until Ella spotted his head over the top of several others - Jack was taller even than Lucifer, topping out at 6’8”.

“There he is,” she said, grinning broadly. Jack walked over to them and slung an arm around Ella.

“Hello everyone,” he said by way of greeting. He was carrying a folder in his other hand but didn’t move to hand it over. He had assumed from the message Ella had sent him a few minutes ago that crime scene discussion was off the table, at least until after lunch had been ordered. The four of them headed out the front entrance and walked down to the corner of the street to their destination.

Hilda’s was an unobtrusive eatery that prided itself on simple, filling meals and snacks. It was well-liked by the police officers who frequented Chloe’s precinct, as most of the meals could easily be taken away for those who didn’t have time to sit and eat, but also allowed them to have lunch meetings in the comfortable booths. The owner, Hilda Rosenberg, was the daughter of a now-retired cop and a skilled cook. She knew the importance of providing tasty meals for the men and women in blue, but she hoped to provide them with some healthier alternatives than what her father had eaten. So far, over the past 3 years, she’d had almost no complaints about her food, service or prices.

Jack walked over and quickly snagged a 4-seater corner booth just after some rookies in uniform vacated it. Lucifer headed to the counter to place coffee orders, and Ella and Chloe followed Jack, taking their seats at the booth. A pretty young waitress, wearing an orange and black apron with silhouette bats flying all over it, smiled at them.

“I’ll just give your table a quick clean, then grab you some menus,” she said, pulling a clean rag from her apron pocket, and wiping crumbs and salt from the table. After finishing that job, she handed out menus. “I’ll be back in a couple of minutes to take your orders.”

Lucifer joined the party, carrying a tray with four mugs of coffee and spoons. Each mug was sitting on a matching saucer and had tiny sugar cookies decorated with Halloween symbols on them.

“Jack - a straight black for you. Ella - large low-fat flat white cappuccino, mint swirl and whipped non-fat cream, for you. And for you Detective, a large, non-fat almond milk latte with sugar-free caramel drizzle and a tiny dusting of sprinkles,” Lucifer said, as he handed out mugs. His own large espresso had been doctored with a bit of whiskey, as he liked it although his Detective frowned when he did so in public when they were on duty.

The waitress came back just as Lucifer sat down. “Are you ready to order, or do you need a few more minutes?”

“I’m ready,” Ella and Jack said together. Chloe smiled - she was so glad to see Ella happy and content in a relationship. She had asked Chloe to do a run on Jack before she committed to going out with him - just to be safe. Her experience with Pete Daily, the ‘Whisper Killer’ had done a lot of damage and it had taken Ella some time to trust strangers again. Jack had come back clean - apart from a minor public nuisance ding when he was 18 that had mostly been drunken teenagers being loud and noisy - and Ella was now a lot better. The server took their orders, then turned to Chloe.

“I’ll have the omelette special please,” Chloe said, deciding the protein would be good for seemed like was going to be a long afternoon picking the cases apart. Lucifer placed his order - the chicken panini special, and the server scooted off again to give their orders to the kitchen.

“So, what are you guys doing for Halloween?” Jack asked, deciding that was a subject that wasn’t directly crime scene related.

“Going to Trixie’s school’s celebration hopefully,” Chloe said. “I missed last year because of that crazy bomber guy, so I’d really like to go this year.”

“It’s being held upstairs in the LUX building. Apparently there’s asbestos or something in the school gym and the school won’t host it, so I offered to have it there. There’s plenty of unused rooms,” Lucifer explained. “The teenagers need to have somewhere to let off some steam and get up to mischief safely.”

“We had some great Halloween parties when I was a lad,” Jack said. “As you know, the Irish are pretty superstitious, so Halloween, or All Hallow’s Eve, is pretty intense in some households. You’ve got to make sure you appease the spirits, or you’ll wind up with all sorts of problems. The Little People take offense easily,” he added.

“The Little People? I assume you’re not talking about people with dwarfism conditions, Jack,” Chloe said.

“The Little People - leprechauns, goblins, brownies, elves. The Fae, Detective. We’re brought up to believe in them, you see, and it’s hard to shake, even when you’re a person of facts and science like myself,” Jack said with a small shrug. “It’s a bit like Santa and the Easter Bunny, but things happen in Ireland that can’t be explained by logical means. Thus The Little People give us someone to put a name to when problems or boons occur.”

“Oh, I see. When you put it that way it makes sense, even if it’s not real.”

“Indeed.”

“We’re going to the pictures - the mini-plex near Jack’s place has a showing of classic horror films like Bela Lugosi’s Dracula and Frankenstein. It’ll be fun - popcorn and corny scares,” Ella said. “Then obviously we’re going to the LUX party.”

Lucifer smiled at her. “We’ll be delighted to see you. Make sure your costume is wonderful.”

“Oh, it will be,” Ella said mysteriously. She knew her costume would make Jack’s jaw drop, or at least the one she was going to wear to the LUX party. She had a full-body onesie style outfit for the cinema trip - a purple and blue dinosaur.


	4. I Put A Spell On You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chloe and Ella learn things from Lucifer, the case might be beginning to break.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Minor squick factor since I discuss the branding of humans in this chapter. This serial killer is a lunatic.
> 
> 10/Jan/21: Fixed an issue with the timing that affects something I put in the next chapter. It now makes much more sense. Don't worry if you have already read the chapter before this edit though, it's not that major of a difference.

Their lunches came and they tucked in. Lucifer was glad to see Chloe was actually eating a decent meal. If left to her own devices, she’d have probably just had a vending machine sandwich, if she remembered, for lunch. He admired her dedication to her work, especially to bringing justice to her victims, but sometimes she forgot to look after herself. Dan had told him, not so long ago, that he was glad she had someone looking out for her. They had buried any animosity between them a few years back, after Lucifer told Dan that the only thing sending him to Hell was his own guilt. Dan had worked hard to forgive himself his sins, and he seemed a lot happier for it. Lucifer had to admire that, if nothing else about Dan, as he knew just how hard it could be to forgive yourself. Finishing his meal, he wiped his hands on the paper napkins provided and laid one hand gently on Chloe’s knee. He knew she knew he would be there for her, but he liked to show her that as often as he could.

“Did anything come back from the ME?” Chloe asked, unable to stop thinking about the case any longer.

Ella flicked a glance at Lucifer, then said quietly, “Yeah. The pre-lim results for Luna came back. She died of major blood loss - most likely from the scalpel to the throat, which is inconsistent with the COD of the first two victims.”

“So it is a copycat then,” Chloe said, pursing her lips. She pushed the last few bites of omelette around her plate.

“Well, the fabric found at her scene wasn’t a match to the others. It’s lower quality, and a different lot of fabric. Both are polyester-wool mix, like what you might use to make a cape or a blanket from, but the one found at the Firestone scene had more polyester than wool, so it’s cheaper fabric. It’s a 70/30 mix, whereas the other fabric is a 40/60 blend. So definitely not the same. Interestingly, though, the dye lot is the same, and it’s a brand frequently used in the costume and prop industry because it’s water-proof and fade-resistant,” Jack offered his information. “I’m just waiting for a list of manufacturers who make both those blends of polyester-wool fabrics, that used that specific dye lot. It should help narrow down where the suspect or suspects got the fabric from.”

“That wold be helpful. Although I imagine this time of year, a lot of people buy red fabric - I mean, we’ve got Halloween now, then Thanksgiving, then Christmas. But it will at least give us people to match any suspects against, if nothing else,” Chloe said.

“I’ll let you know when the results come through,” Jack said, placing his knife and fork neatly on his plate. His phone buzzed, and he checked it. “Speaking of, I’d better get back. It was nice having lunch with you. Thanks.”

He stood and so did Ella, since she was sitting between him and the exit to the booth. Ella kissed his cheek, and he went on his way. Chloe nudged Lucifer, indicating to him she wanted to get out as well. He obliged, standing up and offering her his hand to help her out of the booth. “We’d better head back now too.”

The now-trio did so, walking back to the precinct. Chloe checked the schedule and found one of the conference rooms empty. She commandeered it and began packing up evidence to take in there. Lucifer helped by carrying the evidence and also wheeled in the whiteboard. Chloe’s Lieutenant came over to check on things.

“Decker - is this all related to those Haunted House cases?” Lt. Nigel Harmon asked, seeing the countless pictures, documents and other case clutter.

“Yes, sir. Although we have discovered that this morning’s first victim is not related - it seems someone took advantage of these other murders to take her life as well,” Chloe said.

Harmon whistled through his teeth. “I hate those kinds of whackos. Have you got any leads on either the serial or this other killer?”

“Yes, sir. Ella just gave me a report on fingerprints found on a threatening note at Luna Firestone’s house - she’s our unrelated victim - they match one Marcus Langrove. His rap-sheet’s a mile long, with a sealed juvie file. A few B&E’s, several assaults, an assault with a deadly and he’s the prime suspect in an attempted murder. Although he wasn’t tried on the murder - there wasn’t enough evidence to tie him to the attack,” Chloe said, having just read the report on Langrove. “I’ll get some uniforms to pick him up.”

Harmon studied Chloe for a moment. “I’ll do it. I could use some field work. I’ll grab a couple of our sturdier uniforms and go get him. He can at the very least explain why he was sending threatening notes to the victim.”

“Thank you, sir.” Chloe said, truly grateful for one less job to do.

“Not a problem. Let’s solve this murder so you can get back to hunting the serial killer without some other arsehole mucking up the works,” Harmon said. He strode off to grab some uniforms and go get a bad guy.

“I like him,” Chloe told Lucifer. “He helps his detectives but doesn’t overstep in our investigations. He could easily have taken this case over, considering it’s a serial killer and it’s getting more high profile with every body, but he didn’t. He just helped out with the other murder instead.”

Lucifer agreed with Chloe. He liked her lieutenant as well. He had no ambitions other than to be a good lieutenant and eventually make his way to Captain before retirement. Lucifer might have ‘accidentally’ mojo’d him once. “Yes, he’s a good team leader.”

They were halfway through organising the photos they had so far into the various crime scenes when Ella came bounding in. Lucifer continued to place pictures, whilst listening to Chloe and Ella talk.

“Okay, so the symbols burned into the first two victims, and our third non-copycat victim were all made by electrical currents. The one on Luna’s face was made strike-brand style, similar to how cattle or other livestock are branded,” Ella said. “So Luna is definitely not part of the serial killer’s victims, unless he suddenly decided to break from pattern.”

“How do you mean electrical currents?” Chloe asked.

“Some sort of electrical device was used. I’m gonna go look it up now, but thought you’d want to know the details,” Ella answered.

Lucifer, who had been rather intrigued by the conversation, chimed in. “Well Detective, Miss Lopez, I can answer that.”

Chloe and Ella both turned to look at Lucifer, who had turned to face them.

“Well?” Ella encouraged.

“There are several forms of body modification - tattoos and piercing being the most common and most accepted. However, even today, some people enjoy scarification, and branding comes in under that. There are several ways that scarification can be performed, preferably by someone with professional training. Branding, in particular, can be done in four ways - strike branding, where a stainless steel brand is heated to white-hot heat and placed against the skin, usually repeatedly. This is done several times and over several sessions, as in order to get a more intricate or defined design it needs to be repeated quite a bit. Another way, and this would be one to the two electrical branding processes, is electrocautery. The person doing the branding uses a Thermo Cautery Unit - used by doctors to cauterise veins during invasive surgical procedures and prevent them bleeding all over the place. These heat to about 2,000F and cause an instant third-degree burn to the skin. More intricate designs can be done this way. The other electrical process is called electrosurgery or hyfrecator branding. A device is used which passes electrical current directly through the person’s skin which in effect burns the design into the skin. Branding can also by done using incense and burning it until the flesh extinguishes it, in a process called Moxabustion.” Lucifer stopped talking and looked at the women in front of him. Ella looked somewhat fascinated; Chloe looked mildly disturbed.

“Is that something you learned from being all sexy nightclub owner or is from the King of Hell, Punisher of Sinners realm?” Chloe asked, not at all surprised that Lucifer had known that information.

Lucifer tilted his head to one side slightly and grinned. “A bit of both, actually.”

* * *

Ella had consulted the ME and he determined that the most likely process was electrocautery as the burning was slightly uneven throughout the skin layers, suggesting the design was drawn rather than ‘baked’ on. The ME also confirmed that Tom Himi’s cause of death was the same as Janie Peterson and Henry Morgan’s - an air aneurysm with the whip just being for show and in his case probably to subdue him. There was a contusion on the back of his head, consistent with having fallen down and rapping it hard on a table or the floor.

Lt. Harmon strode into the room and looked at the progress that had been made. The victim’s CODs had all been determined, and Luna and Tom’s times of death had been determined as well. Luna had died within 10 minutes of Tom and considering the distance between the crime scene there was no way the killer could have gone from one to the other, even if he had murdered Luna to try to put them off. Peterson, Morgan, and Himi all had links to the Independent Enlightenment Worshipers - a flyer had been found in Janie’s recycling, and they had been able to determine that the picnic Tom and Anders had attended had been held by the group.

“Decker - Langrove is in interview. Do you want to go at him or do you want me to give him a once over?”

“Well, sir, if you want to interview him, that’s okay with me. I’d like to contact the head of this Independent Enlightenment Worshipers group and talk to him about his group and its members. It seems fairly benign, but all the victims have a link to them. It’s the only thing that links all three, apart from them all working in Haunted Houses, so potentially the murder is using the group to choose his victims,” Chloe explained.

“Alright then. Good work, Decker." Lt Harmon turned to leave. "Make sure you clock off shift on time. I don't want you here after your shift finishes. You're a good Detective Decker, and I want it to stay that way, so make sure you get enough rest." 

Chloe sighed. Her LT had a point, she just wanted to put this case to bed.

“Bring some files back to the penthouse with you and we’ll look over them over dinner. I think Maze will be back by then, so she may have heard something. I can text Eve to tell her to bring Maze over after dinner, before bed if you want,” Lucifer said, knowing if he promised to let her take her work home, his Detective would be more agreeable to the idea.

“Yeah, maybe. Maybe you could just ask Maze if she’s heard anything. I’m not sure that I’ll be great company tonight,” Chloe said, knowing that by now he would realise she meant she just wanted it to be the two of them.

“Of course,” Lucifer said, firing off a quick text to Maze. He looked at Chloe when he’s finished. “So, now we investigate these Worshippers, I suppose.”

“Yeah. It’s run by a married couple, Olivia and Fletcher Stevens. They created the Independant Enlightenment Worshippers in 2010. So they’ve been up and running for about 15 years. No major incidents, no massive amounts of income or deposits. They live in a middle-class area, in a decent but not out of their means house, and have 2 kids who go to a decent but not too fancy school,” Chloe said, reeling off the info she’d gathered so far. She looked at the board she’d had Lucifer set up. He’d done a very good job, which, after 10 years of working together, he should, she supposed. All the crime scenes photos were carefully organised by victim, and the basic info about each victim was tidily written underneath each one. Anything that connected between the victims was neatly connected by arrows.

She typed Fletcher Stevens into the laptop she’s brought into the room with her and brought up his contact details. Entering the number in her phone, she dialled it and put it on speaker.

“Hello, this is Fletcher Stevens, how can I help you?”

“Mr. Stevens. My name is Detective Chloe Decker. I’d like to ask you some questions regarding the deaths of three people whose only connection is your church,” Chloe answered. There was a soft thud, like someone sitting down very quickly and bumping something.

“Certainly, I’ll do whatever I can to help you. Do you need to speak with Olivia, my wife? Just she’s at home with our daughter who is home sick from school today. But I can have my sister stay with Jilly if you need Olivia as well. We can come into the station, or you could come to my office, whichever is more suitable,” Fletcher’s voice shook slightly, as if in shock.

“It may be helpful for me to speak with your wife as well, Mr. Stevens. Would you be able to come to the station? I’ll give you the address,” Chloe said, rattling off the address for the precinct. “When you arrive, tell the front desk you’re here to speak to Detective Decker and they’ll show you up.”

“We’ll be there in about 30 minutes,” Fletcher said. Chloe ended the call.

“Well, he was very willing to help,” Lucifer said, arching one eyebrow.

“Yeah, so he’s either got something to hide or knows nothing but doesn’t want the murders linked to his church. Can’t say I blame him,” Chloe said, rising to grab a bottle of water and stretch. “I wonder how Lt. Harmon is going with the suspect in Luna’s murder. I might go take a look. Wanna come?” she asked.

Lucifer shook his head. He had to admit, Lt. Harmon had a way with suspects that was similar to his own, although admittedly without the mojo or hell-fire eyes. He decided to keep organising the information on the case. Perhaps the more he did, the clearer things would become for Chloe. He watched her leave, then went back to the case information. There had to be something that would prove useful in catching the killer. He thought for a moment, and remembered something, then made a quick phone call.

* * *

Chloe watched as Lt. Harmon worked Marcus Langrove in interview.

“You know, Marcus, it was pretty clever to hide Luna’s murder with the other Haunted House murders, but there were just a few inconsistencies. You know we never release all the info we have to the public, so you were bound to have gotten a few things wrong. But the point is, why Luna? What did a nice young lady like her do to you that made you decide she needed to die, huh? I mean, sending threatening notes is one thing, but actually murdering her? That’s just a step too far,” Lt Harmon locked his fingers together palm to palm and laid his hands on the table in front of him. “I mean, you’re looking at 30 to life here, Marcus. The note makes it pre-meditated, and even the best lawyer can’t argue away the fact that we found more prints - yours again, on her costume. So unless you’ve got a clone with identical fingerprints out there, you need to tell me why you killed her.”

Marcus just sneered at Harmon. “High and mighty bitch mighta gotten herself killed, but I sure as shit didn’t do it. I grabbed her at the Haunted House sure, but it was to talk to her - get her to drop the complaint against me, but some big blond dude warned me off. Said he’d call the cops if I didn’t get out of there, so I left. She wasn’t worth that much hassle. I went to the bar and had myself a few brews, shot some pool. Bartender called me a cab around 2 am and I went home.”

“Can anyone vouch for you being at home at that hour?” Harmon said, leaning forward, en poised over a notepad.

“Yeah. There’s a freaking security cam on the building. I had to fix it the other day. Landlord took the cost off my rent for the month,” Marcus sneered. “I stayed in all night after the cab dropped me off.”

“Alright. What complaint were you trying to get her to drop,” Harmon asked, wondering whether he was going to catch Marcus in a lie.

“Okay, so maybe I was watching from the fence line, but I’m not a pervert. I got a kid who goes to her school, but the ex won’t let me see him except once a month. He, Danny, hold me he played soccer in his lunch hour and I was in the neighbourhood and was looking to see if I could see him. She thought I was being some kind of sicko, getting my jollies from the kids. I was just trying to watch Danny,” Marcus said, shaking his head. “She called the principal and now I can’t go near the school until it’s investigated. And my ex thinks it’s great. Danny just wants to spend time with me, I just wanna spend time with my kid. I don’t think it’s too much. But since Miss high-and-mighty Firestone wouldn’t drop the complaint, I couldn’t do anything about it. Maybe you should ask the big guy at the Haunted House. He seemed to watch her all night. She couldn’t scratch her own butt without him taking notice of her.”

“I’m keeping you until I verify your alibi,” Harmon left the room and came into observation.

“What do you think Decker?”

“At this stage, Lieutentant, it wouldn’t surprise me if he wasn’t the murderer. I’m not sure he’s actually smart enough to have set the scene exactly as the other scenes were set,” Chloe said, watching Marcus slick back his hair in the one-way mirror.

“He certainly won’t be a member of Mensa anytime soon,” Harmon agreed. “I’ll check his alibi and let you know what I find out.” He left the room. Chloe sighed and rubbed at the tension headache in her temples. She looked at her watch. It was now 3:30. Trixie would be with Penny and they’d be on their way to pick up Dan. At least she didn’t have to worry about her daughter today. Hopefully. She walked out of the observation room and back into the conference room where she’d set up her boards. Lucifer was on his phone.

“Yes, that would be most helpful. Ah, here’s the Detective now. I’ll let her give you the correct email address,” Lucifer said, turning as he sensed Chloe walk back into the room. He offered her his phone. “Detective, this is Hannah Mulligan, Anders and Tom’s neighbour whom they went to the picnic with. She is willing to give a statement about the man their dog was upset at, and even better, she thinks she has a photo of him.”

“Hannah Mulligan? This is Detective Chloe Decker. If you can send me that photo, it may prove to be very helpful,” Chloe gave the woman her department email, and the laptop across the room pinged shortly with an incoming mail notification. “I think that’s it. Thank you, Hannah.”

Chloe ended the call and handed the phone back to Lucifer. “How did she ring you?”

“Actually, I was trying to think if we were missing anything and I thought about what Anders had said about the dog never barking at anyone but then getting quite upset at the picnic. I’ve dealt with Hellhounds before and if nothing is amiss they won’t react, but as soon as something is wrong, their canine senses kick in and they go into protect mode. So I called him and asked if he thought Hannah would be able to recognise the man her dog got upset with. He talked to her and asked her to ring me. Turns out she’s had taken a photo of the children and the man was lurking in the background. She’s also willing to make a statement. He and I quote, ‘gave her the creeps’,” Lucifer said, by way of explanation.

“Oh, well, that was good thinking,” Chloe said.

A uniformed officer knocked on the door. “Detective? A Fletcher and Olivia Stevens are here to see you. Where do you want me to put them?”

“Check if there is a spare interview room. Not an interrogation. If not, I’ll bring them in here,” Chloe turned to Lucifer. “I’d better print that photo and take it with us.”

“Done. You just have to get it from the printer,” Lucifer said, walking over to her. Hopefully, they would learn something useful from the Stevens. He followed Chloe out of the conference room and to the outside of the interview room the uniform had indicated. Chloe walked over to the printer and grabbed the printout of the photo, then headed into the room, Lucifer a few paces behind her.


	5. That Old Black Magic

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> More case work plus a little bit of domestic!Lucifer

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trixie will be back next chapter. :D
> 
> 26/Dec/20: Grammar, spelling, unfinished sentences/thoughts, etc fixed.

The Stevens were dumbfounded by their organisation’s link to the murders. Olivia had turned very pale, and Fletcher kept running his fingers through his hair after Chloe informed them about her suspicions.

“You’re 100 percent sure-” Fletcher Stevens cut himself off mid-sentence. “Of course you’re sure. Who would do this? Obviously this person is very sick in the mind,” he continued, more to himself now than to anyone else.

“Has anyone from your group been acting strange lately? Was anyone particularly interested in being at all of these community events you held?” Chloe asked, not revealing the photo just yet.

“No one I can think of. We generally just have a sign-up roster for people to volunteer their time, if they want. We just wanted to create a place where people of any faith, or no particular faith, could come and feel safe to practice their faith and cater to their spiritual needs. Everyone is welcome - we don’t care about race, religion, creed, sexuality, anything, As long as people don’t disturb others whilst practising their religion and it’s within the law, we’re fine with it,” Fletcher said, looking pleadingly at Chloe.

“Neither of us felt that in our own family - especially mine,” Olivia spoke up. “My sister was born male and never felt like she was male. Our parents kicked her out not long after I left to go to college. I took her in and they cut ties with us. She had a crisis of faith, and we were lucky that we found a very accepting pastor near my college and he was able to help her get past that. Fletch and I met at college - he was studying theology, I was studying psychology and social justice. We moved to LA after I finished at college because Cassidy wanted to get expert work done when she had her gender re-assignment surgeries and Fletch and I started the group once she was healed,” Olivia smiled. “Cass now runs a very successful interior design business in Sacramento with her husband.”

“That’s why it’s so hard for us to fathom why someone would use our group to pick murder victims.” Fletcher took a hold of his wife’s hand, linking his fingers with hers. He gestured to the file he’s brought with him with his other hand. “We’ve only ever had trouble with one person - I brought the file we had on him in case it helps.”

Chloe picked up the file and flicked through. The file contained a photo of an angry-looking man with tattoos all over, mostly gang symbols found on members of gangs that were Neo-Nazi or white supremacist. Jacob Harlowe was the name he had given to Fletcher and Olivia on his application for janitorial work. Chloe noted this down, although she suspected Harlowe wasn’t their murderer. She pulled the photo from Hannah Mulligan out of her files and showed it to the Stevens. “Have either of you see this man before?”

Fletcher and Olivia both looked closely at the man in the photograph. They then looked at each other, and Fletcher spoke, “I don’t think we’ve seen him, but maybe his brother or his cousin.”

“Definitely a relative though, I think,” Olivia added. “He’s been coming to services, not of any one religion, for about six months now.”

Fletcher pulled out his phone. “I can get you his name and photo now. And I’d be happy to send over anything we have on him after we leave.”

“That would be helpful,” Chloe said, hoping they might have been getting close to a breakthrough.

“Here it is. Joe Poole,” Fletcher said triumphantly. “Here’s a picture too.”

Chloe looked at the image on Fletcher’s phone. She felt Lucifer lean over her shoulder to study it as well. It was essentially a clean shaven, cleaner and slightly younger looking version of the man in Hannah’s photo. All of those things - the scruffy beard, the untidy hair, the dirt and the slight age in the photo were easy enough to fake.

“Thank you both for coming in. I need to impress on you the importance of not saying anything about this to anyone - especially Mr Poole. We would hate for him to accidentally tip off our suspect, if he is the murderer,” Chloe said, standing.

“Not a word from us, we promise,” Fletcher said, also standing. He held out a hand to his wife to help her out of her chair.

“Please let us know if we can help in any other way,” Olivia said as she and her husband made their way out the door.

“I will. Thanks,” Chloe said, holding the door open as the Stevenses left. Once they had gone, Chloe ran a hand through her own hair. “Well, that was not much help.”

“How so, Detective? They clearly seemed to know this man, or his cousin, at least that might give us a lead,” Lucifer said, gently rubbing Chloe’s shoulder.

“Yeah, but they couldn’t give us much information about him. Urgh. This whole case is so frustrating,” Chloe sighed. She was struggling to find something to tie everything together to solve both her cases. She was tired, and quite frankly just wanted to go home. She knew she couldn’t just go home yet - she was on shift until 8pm. She checked her watch - it was just after 4:15. “I’m going to run this Joe Poole and see what comes up.”

Lucifer followed Chloe back out to the main area of the precinct but stopped as she headed into the conference room.

“I’m just going to get some refreshments from the vending machine,” he told her.

“Okay. I’ll get these run started and check if there are any updates from the lab,” Chloe said, walking over to sit in front of the computer. Lucifer headed off towards the vending machines and then, making sure Chloe wasn’t looking, detoured and headed to her Lieutenant’s office. She wouldn’t like it if she knew what he was doing - she didn’t need ‘looking after’ in her words, and most often she was right. But Lucifer knew his Detective, and she’d work herself to exhaustion trying to solve this case if he let her. Her Lieutenant was also aware of this. Avoiding the oddly sticky fake spiders and cobwebs that were hanging from the tops of the Lieutenant’s office window, Lucifer knocked on the door. Lt. Harmon looked up and signalled from him to enter.

“Mr Morningstar, how can I help you?” Lt. Harmon gestured for Lucifer to take a seat. Lucifer sat, pulling his pants legs up as he did so as not to ruin the line of them.

“It’s this case Detective Decker is working on,” Lucifer began. “I’m not asking you to take her off it or anything - she’d be very unhappy if I did that, but I want her to get some rest - she’ll be all the better for it. I’d hoped she’s be able to this morning, but she got called in early because of the Firestone crime scene and she’s on shift until 8pm and I know as well as you that she won’t leave early unless you tell her to. So I am hoping you might send her home an hour early.”

Harmon leant back i his seat and contemplated Lucifer’s request for a minute. It was reasonable - Decker hadn’t been scheduled to start until 10am, and she’d been on the Firestone scene by 7:48am, according to her log. He knew she was an excellent Detective - one of his best actually, and that she and Mr Morningstar held the best case closure rate in the squad. He’d also seen the fatigue beginning to show when he’d talked to her about Langrove earlier. “Alright Mr Morningstar - I’ll send Decker home early.”

“Thank-you Lieutenant,” Lucifer said, rising.

“Oh, and I hear you’re the Saviour of the Sun Valley High School Halloween party,” Harmon added. Lucifer turned to face the man, having just reached the door.

“Yes,” Lucifer said. He knew that was the name of Trixie’s school, but was unaware how the Lieutenant would know that.

“My older son and my daughter attend Sun Valley,” Lt. Harmon said. “So thanks for letting the kids keep their fun.”

“Not a problem. It was easy enough, and I made the Detective’s daughter happy in the process,” Lucifer explained. Harmon nodded, and Lucifer left, now heading towards vending.

* * *

The run on Jacob Harlowe showed he couldn’t have been the killer - he was currently in a high-security prison doing 20 years for felony drug possession and another 25 for manslaughter. He’d been in jail for almost a year. Joe Poole had proven to be a bit more interesting.

“Josiah Poole. 46 years old. Born to parents, Josephine and Amos Poole. They died under mysterious circumstances 25 years ago. ME couldn’t determine the exact cause of death. They weren’t able to determine if the deaths were natural or if the Pooles had met with foul play. Josiah, their only son and heir, inherited their small farm in rural Nebraska and $200,000 in life insurance from their life insurance policies at age 21. He has a sealed juvie record and several DUI busts in his early twenties, then nothing for some time until he shows up with a minor assault charge for a bar fight in Nevada about 12 years ago, although the charges were eventually dropped. After that, nothing. He reported his motorbike stolen 6 years ago in Greenfield, Monterey, and then nothing again,” Chloe read the information aloud. “I can’t open the sealed record without more to go on, unless he gives us permission, and that’s highly unlikely.”

“So he made his way from rural Nebraska to the bright lights of Los Angeles over the course of about 25 years, then? Talk about a late bloomer,” Lucifer said, hoping to make Chloe smile.

A small smile flickered across her face for a second, then the computer beeped. “More from the ME on Luna Firestone. He confirms death was due to massive blood loss caused by the wound to the neck. Also found ketamine in her system - a higher concentration in her stomach than anywhere else, which the ME says means she ingested it rather than having been injected with it, and that is was close to her time of death. Ketamine would have made her fairly easy to overpower. That tells me her killer had to know her or her habits - at least well enough to get her to ingest the ketamine in the first place. She wasn’t the sort of girl who was into regular or any drug use according to the ME report as well.”

Lucifer had come over to read the report over Chloe’s shoulder, resting his hands on her shoulders as he did. “Yes - it’s one drug I never allowed in LUX - even before you. Too many people willing to take advantage of those under it’s effects. Its been known to be used as a date rape drug.”

Chloe reached up and squeezed his hand - whilst her Devil allowed people to indulge in whatever fantasies and kinks they chose either at LUX or in the sex club he previously owned, he believed that all participants should be able to consent and be aware of what they were consenting to. Date rape drugs were a huge no-no in the Devil’s eyes. “It might be considered a small mercy, since she was still brutally murdered, but the report shows no sign of any sexual activity in the hours before she died.”

“Yes, that could be considered a mercy.” Lucifer patted Chloe’s hand. “Shall I add that information to your board then, Detective?”

“Ah yeah - at least the ketamine and COD.” Chloe read the rest of the report to see if there was anything else of note. “The scalpel was a common surgical scalpel - could be gotten from any number of medical supply places or off the internet. It had been wiped down, or the killer wore gloves because there were no prints.”

“What about the surveillance footage? From the warehouse. I don’t suppose the killer was on that, was he?”

“The techs ran the video for an hour before and after a time of death - it had been tampered with so there’s no footage of what happened. If Luna’s killer is on there earlier, he’s blending in with everyone else who was there, at least at this point,” Chloe said, rubbing her eyes. It was nearly 5:30pm. Only a bit over 2 and a half hours and they could leave. Thank somebody, Chloe thought.

Lt Harmon walked into the room. “Decker - I want you out of here at 5:30. Mr Morningstar - carry her out if you have to.”

“Lieutenant - I’m rostered on until 8pm,” Chloe said, in a token protest.

“And you got called in 3 hours early, so I’m sending you home early. You need some rest, Detective. I don’t want this case burning you out. Well, cases, rather. If you need to take something home, take the surveillance footage. Although I think you’d be better off leaving it here and coming back fresh in the morning,” Harmon looked directly at Chloe. “If you’re still here at 5:45, I’m going to dock your pay, Detective.”

“Okay. Well, we’ll just pack up in here then go I guess,” Chloe said, too tired now to put an effort into arguing with her Lieutenant.

“That’s fine, Decker,” Harmon walked over to the board to study the progress again as Chloe began to pack up files. Lucifer walked over and helped her, picking up the files boxes to carry them to her deck. She looked at the surveillance footage discs and picked them up, stacking them together and putting them in her desk drawer. Chloe decided she wasn’t taking work home with her tonight. She’d caught a lucky break with her Lieutenant, even though she suspected her Devil had had something to with it. She didn’t care. She just wanted to go home with Lucifer, have a shower, put on her comfortable clothes and relax for a few hours before bed.

Taking Lucifer’s hand, she walked towards the elevators to head to the parking garage. Once they’d stepped inside the elevator and the doors had closed, she looked over at him. “Thank you. For whatever you said to Lt. Harmon. I could use the early night - relax, clear my mind, come back tomorrow fresh.”

Lucifer smiled at her - the one he kept just for her. “Your happiness is all I desire, Detective.”

“Good. Then you can drive. To the penthouse.” Chloe answered the unasked question. “I just want it to be us tonight.”

“Your wish is my command, darling,” Lucifer said, as Chloe handed him her keys with a huge yawn, when the elevator door opened on her parking level. They walked to her car and Lucifer pressed the button to undo the locks. Chloe sat in the passenger seat, her legs stretched out as far as she could get them, and her head resting against the seat, eyes closed. By the time Lucifer had pulled out on to the street, she was asleep.

* * *

Lucifer pulled into Chloe’s spot at LUX. It was next to his Corvette. Turning off the ignition, he turned to look at Chloe, who woke slowly with the car stopping.

“Hello sleepyhead,” he said gently.

“Oh, did I fall asleep?” Chloe asked, slightly groggy.

“Indeed, you did. Let’s get you upstairs,” he suggested opening the car door. He was around to her side of the car before she could so much as blink. He opened the door and Chloe climbed out of the car, taking the hand Lucifer held out to pull her tired body out. He wrapped his arm around her waist as they walked to his private elevator and got into it. The ride to the penthouse always seemed to take forever when she really wanted to get there, and it was no different now. Finally, there was the faint ding that announced they had arrived and they stepped out of the elevator together.   
Chloe made a beeline for the couch, toeing off her work boots and wiggling her toes as she stretched her legs out and sprawled face-down on the buttery soft leather. Lucifer looked over at her and shook his head slightly. His Detective was tired, so he would make her some dinner and at least get her fed before she went to bed. Now that she was away from her co-workers and boss, she would relax and allow herself to just be. He walked into the kitchen and heard the faint murmur of voices from the television Chloe must have turned on to keep her company whilst he made dinner.   
Something quick but filling, he decided, opening the fridge and checking ingredients. The kitchen in the penthouse was fully equipped - cooking was one of those domestic chores that he actually enjoyed. It was a way of expressing yourself and your feelings without words, which he was not as good at, although had gotten a lot better with his Detective’s help. A lot of people wondered why he rarely used people's names and usually gave them a nickname or used their title. Names were special - to give someone your name meant a lot when he was growing up. Not how the humans pronounced angel names, but in the Divine language, it meant that the person saying your name could have control over you. He only called Chloe by her name when he was being serious, it was important or when he was, well, praying - which was generally only when they were both naked. He had told her his name in the Divine language when they had been officially together for a year. Understanding what he was giving her, Chloe had cried a little, although she assured him it wasn’t because she was sad. For him it was the ultimate act of trust - something he thought that the killers she was chasing had broken.

Thinking about this, a theory began forming in the back of his mind whilst he finished making dinner. Putting the spaghetti into bowls and sprinkling it with a fine layer of freshly grated parmesan he placed them onto a tray, with toasted herb bread he knew his Detective had a hard time resisting and carried the whole thing, including cutlery out to where she sat, scanning the news headlines.

“No rumours of disaster, impending doom and gloom tonight, darling?” He asked her, setting the tray on the table between the two couches.

“No, just the usual. Some guy ran down Rodeo Drive completely naked and painted with neon green body paint. There was a spate of shoplifting in one of the malls - turns out it was one of the owners’ kids. They haven’t realised that the Firestone murder isn’t related to the other murders yet, so that’s good. Gives us an advantage over that killer,” Chloe summed up the news reports, and the reason she’d been interested in them and switched the screen off. She picked up one of the bowls and took a piece of bread. “This looks good.”

She ate a mouthful. It was good - the dish was one she enjoyed, just spaghetti coated in olive oil, garlic, cracked pepper and a pinch of salt. Sometimes there were chilli flakes to add a little kick, although not tonight. And of course, she had a hard time saying no to the handmade herbed bread from the little bakery down the street. Very soon they’d both finished their meal. Chloe tried unsuccessfully to stifle another yawn.

“Come now, Detective. A bath then bed for you, I think,” Lucifer said, rising from the couch, his voice warm and coaxing.

“Sounds good,” Chloe admitted, holding out both hands. Lucifer took them and pulled her gently to her feet. Together they walked into the bathroom. Lucifer’s tub was big enough to fit 4 people comfortably, but Chloe’s favourite thing were the massage jets. They felt wonderful on tired muscles after a hard day at work. Lucifer walked over and began pressing buttons on the tub controls - setting the temperature and the jets. He tossed a generous helping of the fragrant bath salts he’d brought Chloe on their last holiday together and the room soon began to fill with the soft fragrant steam from the bath.

Chloe pulled on the soft white silk robe that was hers and sat on the equally soft low bench next to the tub. She smiled at Lucifer, his suit jacket gone and sleeves meticulously rolled up. He’s so pretty, she thought distractedly.

“Okay darling, get in when it’s finished running, I'll be back soon, I'll just tidy up out there first,” Lucifer kissed the top of Chloe’s head and walked out. Chloe sighed, content with her lot in life at the moment. She was warm and safe, her Devil was tidying up and would join her soon, and her daughter was safe with her father. She watched the water level in the tub rise and the water slow to a final trickle, then stop. Discarding the robe, she stepped into the warm water and eased herself down, aligning her back and shoulders with the jets. Resting her head against the wall, Chloe let out a long, happy moan.


	6. Jeepers Creepers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trixie and Dan bonding, Serial Killer POV and Deckerstar Fluff. What more could you ask for!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Center section is the serial-killer POV but nothing frightening.
> 
> 26/Dec/20: Spelling, grammar, unfinished thoughts etc all fixed.

Trixie sat in the back-seat of her father’s girlfriend’s car and sent a quick text to her mother to let her know she was with her dad and Penny. Penny had picked her up from school at the end of the day and they had then headed straight to the airport to pick Dan up. It had been nice to be one of the first to see her dad after his trip. He swept her up in a bear-hug and then kissed Penny to the point where she’d had to make gagging noises to remind him where he was. They’d collected his suitcase from the luggage carousel and were now on their way back to her dad’s apartment.

As far as her dad’s relationship with Penny went, Trixie was pleased. Penny was a genuinely nice person, and made her dad happier than he’d been since Charlotte Richards. He’d had a couple of other relationships before Penny. One was over with pretty quick and Trixie assumed now that it hadn’t meant a great deal to either her dad or the woman he’d been seeing. The relationship he’d had before Penny had lasted nearly a year, and Trixie hadn’t liked it. She considered herself to be fairly easy going about her parents' relationships - although her mom and Lucifer had been together for 5 years, but Meghan just hadn’t been pleasant. She hadn’t wanted to share Dan with anyone - especially not his daughter, which made it difficult for Trixie to spend time with her dad. She had also expected him to drop whatever he was doing and do what she wanted, even when he was at work. Trixie knew this because she had overheard her parents having a very heated discussion about it one day. Her mom wanted Dan to be happy, but didn’t want it to interfere with the time he spent with Trixie. He’d eventually worked out the best way to end his relationship with Meghan and had fixed his relationship with Trixie.

Penny, on the other hand, had two kids of her own - their grandmother would bring them over after they’d finished their after-school activities - and understood it was important for Trixie to spend time with her dad by herself and with Penny and her kids. Trixie smiled as her phone buzzed - Gemma was still second-guessing her costume choice, even though it had been brought and both Trixie and Alexis’s costumes were based on the same theme.

_No Gems, you can’t go as a ghost wearing a sheet. You are going to look totally awesome in your costume. Trixie sent the message to the group chat._

_But Tobias is going to be there and he’ll see my puppy fat and it’ll be super embarrassing!_

_Trixie, will you tell Gemma that Tobias is not going to be looking at anything but her smoking hot self once she’s in costume?_ This message came from a testy-sounding Alexis. Both Alexis and Trixie knew that Gemma had a level-10 crush on Tobias Walters. What Gemma didn’t realise is that Tobias had an even bigger crush on her. Trixie and Alexis knew this because he had told them so, but had asked them not to tell Gemma until he could tell her for himself.

 _Seriously Gemma, you’ve got nothing to worry about. You have 0% fat, puppy or otherwise. And if Mandy-Pandy says anything it’s because she’s jealous she doesn’t look half as good as you._ Mandy-Pandy was the girls’ unflattering nickname for their mutual frenemy, Mandy Greeves. She’d been the fourth member of their group until high school, then suddenly she’d dumped them and moved onto a different group of girls. They’d never gotten a proper explanation and had no real idea why she’d turned on them. Trixie figured she’d lost her self-worth somewhere. As her ‘aunt’ Maze liked to remind her - self-worth came from within.

They sent a few more messages back and forth until Alexis announced she needed to go to softball practise. Trixie looked up and realised they were almost at her dad’s house. Penny turned into the street and shortly turned into the driveway of the small apartment building where her dad lived. They all got out and headed to his second-level apartment.

“Trixie - you know I missed you when I was away, right?” Dan asked his daughter as they went up the stairs.

“I know, Dad. I missed you too,” she said. When they got to the top of the stairs, she hugged him. “But sometimes you gotta go away for work stuff. I’m not a little girl anymore, I understand.”

“I got you something,” Dan continued, entering his apartment after Penny.

“Yeah? What is it?” Trixie asked, always a fan of presents.

“I’ll get it for you,” he said, carrying his suitcase into his bedroom. Trixie put her schoolbag on the hook behind the door and walked over to the fridge. She opened it and took out the juice carton. It was pineapple, which she was partial to. She got a glass out of the cupboard - if it had just been her and her dad, she would have drank straight out of the container, but Penny had the same rule about that as her own mom, so she got the glass.

“I’ll have one too please, Trixie,” Penny said, coming into the kitchen. Trixie got out another glass and filled it as well. “It’s your choice for dinner - unless you want your dad to pick.”

“How about burgers? From FitzBurger?” Trixie said.

“Burgers it is. I’ll get the menu up.” Penny picked up her glass, tapped it to Trixie’s and went into the living room. Dan came out of the bedroom and sat at the table in the dining area off the kitchen and gestured Trixie over. Trixie carried her glass to the table and sat, facing her dad.

“So, between the start of the conference and me arriving in Virginia, I had a couple of days free. One of the places I went as the Steven F Udvar-Hazy Center - you know, the air and space museum that has the Apollo 11 exhibition and stuff. I took a ton of photos you can look at on our next weekend together. But in the gift sop they had this,” Dan produced a small box and gave it to Trixie. She opened it to discover a glass and silver astronaut in a fancy-looking space suit. “This is based on the current modelling for astronauts going to Mars. I thought you might like it. It reminded me of your Halloween costume when you were 8. You’re still going to study aeronautical engineering, aren’t you?”

Trixie held the astronaut up to the light and watched the light create prisms on the edges of the glass. “Yeah, I’m hoping to, anyway. Thanks Dad, this is really cool.” Trixie threw her arms around her father in a bear hug, which was gratefully returned.

“You’re welcome, Monkey.”

* * *

Where was she? The man searched through the crowds of people in costume, trying to find his target. It was the Wednesday night second show and Kelsey Roberts should have been there, dressed up and putting on an act like the rest of the people employed here. He supposed he could try someone else. No. That wouldn’t do. He had to stick with the plan. It was his path - his righteous path to show the false prophets what happened to those who strayed from the Holy path. She was probably on a break, that was all. He would simply continue to explore this bastardised celebration of All Hallow’s Eve, and determine the best location for her presentation. There were more options here than in some other places.

One room reminded him of the facility where he’d been sent at 14, before he’d learnt to hide his true self from people. His true self scared those who weren’t truly righteous. The psychiatrists had given him their labels and pumped him full of poison. He’d bided his time, learnt what they wanted him to show and then displayed all the right behaviours, manipulated all the staff he had been able, and had been given the green light to leave just after his 17th birthday. There had been a few staff who had seen through the act, but hadn’t been in a position to prevent his release. He avoided them as much as possible - he had wanted to leave, so he played nice.

His parents, though, had brought the act, at least initially. But almost 4 years outside the order and structure of the facility had weakened his resolve to prevent his true self, and one day he’d simply snapped. His mother had been talking non-stop about some facetious religious retreat she and his father were going to. The more she yammered on about the false prophet who was running it and how his interpretation of God’s words spoke to her, the more outraged he had become. He knew however he couldn’t simply snap her neck like he wanted to so he had planned just the right way to shut her and his whining father up for good. He liked to relieve that moment now and then, although he didn’t have time now. It helped him when he need to keep his true self hidden for long stretches of time.

He smiled as he thought about that time in his life - when he had discovered his true path, the righteous calling that was his and his alone. Several people shuddered when they caught a glimpse of his face - there was something about that smile that was off-putting. They may not have been able to put their finger on it, but it instinctively creeped them out. He didn’t notice the discomfort or the people who veered from his path, but continued on through the winding path the Haunted Houses employees shepherded their customers along.

The next area, filled with hunter’s trophies that moved and growled, didn’t interest him much. Dead animals were just that, dead animals. The array of weaponry on the walls, some styled to look like it was coated in fresh blood, held more interest, although he found them messy. His way was less messy. He’d paid attention to a lot of things in the institution, and now days the internet held so much information. He used internet cafes or pre-paid sim cards in his tablet to access the internet - he didn’t want the government tracking his every movement like the spies they were. He only had a driver’s license because it was difficult to purchase certain things without one, and he didn’t want to raise suspicion too much. The details on it were correct - and with his time in the institution locked away and unable to be accessed by anyone, he thought he was mostly safe. Still, it paid to be careful, and under his true identity he had known very little trouble.

He walked a little way down the hallway filled with B-Movie horror film posters and creatures and turned into the next area, set up as a medieval style torture chamber. This room, he decided, definitely had potential. There was an old-school torture rack, complete with cuffs and pulleys; an iron maiden currently being used to imprison what appeared to be a dummy. Other various torture devices - pears of anguish, whips, hammers, knee splitters, even a wheel and a Judas cradle. After examining the exhibits more closely, he followed the rest of the crowd into the next room.

He caught snippets of conversations - “Oh my God, that rack looked so realistic.” “Can we please go get ice cream after this? And maybe some booze?” “You look so hot in your costume. It’s distracting me from the scary stuff.” He was pleased that his selection for tonight worked here. Although he disproved of these places as a celebration of All Hallows Eve, this one had been spectacularly crafted and he had to give credit where credit was due. He went through another set of doors and found himself out in the car park. He blinked for a moment, slightly bewildered. Had he made a wrong turn and missed Kelsey? He would have to work his way around to the front of the building and go in again. He considered changing into his regular clothes, but faltered. Then he would show up on the cameras that were undoubtedly in place in through the Haunted House. He couldn’t have that - not until he was ready to reveal his calling to the world. Perhaps he could go and get something to eat - it was rather late and then come back through. But what if they closed before he returned? As he was trying to decide, two young women dressed in black with “Hellywood Hauntz” on their jackets came out of a separate side entrance, chatting to each other.

“Did you hear? Kelsey, Simone, Javier and Goose all came down with severe food poisoning. Hector had to scramble to get more cast for the second run tonight.”

“What did they eat?”

“Turns out you should avoid Crazy Jimmy’s Burgers if you want to keep your stomach lining.”

“Is that the food cart on Preston?”

“Yeah. He’s been closed down now. 40 people all reported food poisoning from the same thing last night. Kelsey said she could barely keep down water at lunchtime. Her boyfriend took her to the hospital very early this morning.”

The girls walked past him, and he knew then that tonight would be a bust. It was too late to try any of the others on his list, and it was too risky to try someone else in the Haunted House. With a sigh, he headed to his car, and getting in drove off. The girls’ talk of burgers had made him hungry, so he went to his regular burger joint for a meal.

* * *

Whilst Trixie enjoyed her time with her father, and a killer was unsuccessful in stalking his prey, Chloe was being quite thoroughly indulged by the Devil. The bathroom smelled lightly of vanilla, berries and something she couldn’t quite place. She was being gently pummelled by jets of hot but not-too-hot water, which were gently massaging the week’s tension out of her body, and she was perfectly content to stay exactly where she was. It was just too bad parts of her brain didn’t agree with this idea. For now, she did her best to ignore that part and sank below the water’s surface for a moment, wetting her long hair.

Lucifer arrived back in the bathroom just in time to see her surface, water droplets running down her face and neck to meld tantalisingly into the water. She looked for all the world like a mermaid from a fairytale.

“Well, it seems there’s a mermaid in my bathtub,” he said, grinning as he unbuttoned the blue silk shirt he’d put on that morning.

Chloe smiled back, watching him undress. “Well, I don’t think I need to tempt you with a song though, do I?”

“No. You don’t have to do anything to tempt me, Detective,” he said, as he climbed into the tub. Chloe motioned for him to sit next to her. He did so, and she leant into his side. He wrapped an arm around her and held her close.

“I know I’m meant to be relaxing, but part of my brain just won’t switch off,” Chloe began.

“I can hear the cogs spinning in your head. You might as well get it out now, so then maybe you’ll sleep properly tonight,” Lucifer said, tucking his chin on top of her head.

“It’s just the Stevenses. Everything I’ve found on them makes them looks very legitimate, and I think they are. They both actually have jobs outside of their church, for lack of a better term - she’s a professional counsellor, and he teaches theology at a private school. There’s nothing weird or troubling about the Independant Enlightenment Worshippers. No lawsuits, no tax fraud, nothing. They’re literally what they say they are - two people wanting to give people somewhere to practise their faith without the pressure that a lot of organised religion seems to put on their followers,” Chloe said, idly tracing patterns on the side of the tub with a wet finger.

“Is that a bad thing?”

“No, it’s a good thing for the people who need it.” She moved her head to look at Lucifer’s face. “You know I didn’t believe in your Dad before I actually met him, and even now I don’t believe in organised religion, unlike Ella. But I think what Fletcher and Olivia are doing is a good thing.”

Lucifer looked at her. “I think so to. You know I’m not a fan of most of the organised religions that go about trying to make Dad out to be more than he is and also twist things that did happen for their own purposes. How many murders have we been to where there’s been some sort of ‘soul-redeeming’ factor to the motive?”

Chloe nodded. “Exactly. But here I am looking at this group of people, who mostly seem to just be minding their own business and grateful for somewhere to share their spirituality with others, even if they don’t believe in the same thing, and trying to figure out where my killer fits in. I’m fairly certain he’s going to either be this Joe Poole guy or have something to do with him - but why pick these people? There’s always a reason. At least for the first victim. I’d love to know his parents actually died - if they’re his first victims.”

“Do you think they are? Even if it was, perhaps, unintentional?”

“Yeah. I’d also love to be able to unlock his juvie file, but I need something more than suspicions before I can request permission to unlock it. Lt. Harmon might agree to putting a watch on him, though,” Chloe sighed. “I just wish I could work out a motive or even a victim type, but they’ve all been so different and nothing links them except for the Haunted Houses. I can’t even really link them that way because none of the houses have been run by the same company. Then of course there’s Luna Firestone. I need to talk to the ‘big guy’ Marcus Langrove mentioned tomorrow.” Chloe yawned again, although without the gusto she had had earlier. Dinner, a bath, and the chance to think a few things over without the pressure of the workplace had relaxed her.

She looked around and spied the bottles of fancy shampoo and conditioner in the wall niche beside the bath and reached up to take them down. After wetting her hair again, although she could have just used the extension on the bath tap, she moved and sat in front of Lucifer, silently handing him the bottles of hair product. He smiled, knowing what she wanted. Pouring the faintly honey-smelling shampoo into one hand, he gently worked it into her hair, his deft fingers just as skilled when it came to hair-washing as they were many other things. After a few minutes, Chloe was practically purring like a cat in a patch of sunlight.

“I’d forgotten how much you like this,” Lucifer said softly, bringing his mouth to just near her ear. Chloe said something, but it was unintelligible. He chuckled, amused, and continued. Once done, and she’d returned the favour, they both got out of the cooling bath water. Chloe dried her hair, then entered the bedroom and pulled out the familiar white shirt she usually slept in and pulled in on before sliding into the silk sheets. She was asleep before Lucifer had come into the bedroom. Carefully, so as not to disturb her, he climbed into bed as well, wrapping an arm firmly around her. Soon after, he too was asleep.


	7. Somebody's Watching Me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> More crime-solving, endless Deckerstar (but no fluff, sorry), also a forensics lesson in the science of hair.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> https://www.nerdyshirts.com/collections/science/products/womens-science-like-magic-but-real-tshirt-funny-nerdy-teacher-tee - Ella’s T-shirt  
> https://www.mccrone.com/mm/untangling-hairy-science/ - under-microscope hair pictures. Much better than my explanation. 
> 
> Buckle up kids, we're starting to solve the murders!
> 
> 26/Dec/20: Edited to fix spelling, grammar, unresolved thoughts, etc.

Chloe walked into the precinct the next day, ready to catch herself some murderers. Lucifer had been right - a relaxing evening and a good night’s sleep had refreshed her. So much so she had woken up early enough to wake him up in her favourite way, linger over her breakfast and still make it into work at 8:30 am. Lucifer had needed to stay behind to meet with Gloria about details for the Halloween party - both the one of Sun Valley High and the LUX one later in the night. They needed to make sure only the teachers, helper parents and students from the school could access the kids party via the elevator - it wouldn’t do to have early LUX attendees trying to mingle with the high schoolers. They also needed to prevent the high school seniors from trying to access LUX.

Chloe had time to write up a case summary for Dan, who would be back on board and helping her out now he was back from the conference, and check her departmental emails. There was the usual families fund donation drive reminder - Lucifer told her he would write a check and donate it in Trixie’s name. He wouldn’t specify how much the check was worth, but simply said that since the urchin had both biological parents as police officers and since there was more than one child with both parents in that situation, it would be enough to cover expenses. After 5 years together Chloe no longer argued about money with Lucifer any more. It simply didn’t concern him, and it made him happy to spend it on her and Trixie, although he did make sure to run any large and/or expensive purchases for Trixie past her first.

“Hey Chloe!” Dan entered the precinct and stopped by her desk. He was looking relaxed and happy, which pleased Chloe. They may not be as close as they had been when they were first married, but they were friends now and she was pleased to see him look better for the time away.

“Hey yourself. You look better.” Chloe said, handing him the case summaries. “Here’s a catch up on the two current cases I have. Not sure what else you might get roped into, but those are mine. The LT is in his office.”

Dan looked over toward the Lieutenant’s office and saw his boss sitting at his desk, appearing to do paperwork. “I’ll read your notes and then get started.” He stood up and began to head to his desk, then turned back. “I hear Lucifer saved Halloween.”

“Yeah - the school gymnasium has asbestos in it and they couldn’t get it replaced before Friday. There’s a few floors above LUX that are function spaces, and Lucifer said the school could hold the party there. You know how Trixie is,” Chloe said.

“Hey, I’m just glad she’s happy. She loves Halloween, and she’d have been super disappointed if the school had had to cancel the party. I’m happy to handle chaperone duties if you want, or we can do double-duty. If you need someone to do casework so you can go to the party, I can do it,” Dan offered. He knew Chloe had missed the previous Halloween due to work and the year before Trixie had been sick.

“Hopefully we’ve caught these guys by then,” Chloe said. “But I’ll let you know.” Just then her computer beeped, signalling an incoming email. It was from Ella.

Chloe.

They found a few hairs at the Firestone crime scene that are most likely your killer’s. I’m having them send them to me and run any DNA found through the system. Only the killer could have left them on the body, considering where they were found.

Also found a potential lead on the brand found on the victims. Will get some more info once I get into work - traffic is a nightmare this morning but we’re nearly at the precinct. Will catch you up more later.

Lopez out.

Chloe smiled at the cheerful tone of Ella’s email and at the prospect of more leads for her case. Just then a large disposable coffee mug entered her vision - she looked up to see Lucifer, holding the coffee cup with the smile he kept just for her on his face. She took the coffee from him and took the first swallow. “Thanks.”

Lucifer walked over and held out a cup to Dan.

“Daniel.” he said, by way of greeting. Dan took the coffee, and once Lucifer’s back was turned, lifted the lid and sniffed. “It’s just coffee, Daniel. Skim milk, sugar substitute, coffee beans, hot water.”

Dan winced slightly. Lucifer had long since stopped adding different ingredients to his coffee, but Dan still remained suspicious when he was genuinely just being nice to him sometimes. “Just breathing in the caffeine.”

Lucifer simply raised an eyebrow at Chloe, who shrugged. Dan could be weirder than Lucifer sometimes. Which was annoying because Lucifer being literally older than the universe, it was expected that occasionally he’d be weird. Dan was supposed to be a street-smart cop. Chloe drank another mouthful of coffee and continued reading the information that had come in overnight. It seemed as though something might come to light today to help her catch at least one of the murderers she was hunting.

After a short time, Ella’s cheerful voice could be heard greeting people as she entered the homicide area. Today’s tee had an atom symbol and several other science related images with a saying that read ‘Science like magic but real’. She headed to her lab, but signalled Chloe to follow her as she walked past. Chloe, Lucifer and Dan - who had read Chloe’s case summaries by now, all followed her.

“So, the crime scene guys sent me over the hair I emailed you about - plus the results on the DNA search,” Ella began. She typed something into the computer and brought up some images on the screen. “So on the left we have a human hair. This particular hair is not-coloured, dark brown and is straight. As you can see, it’s fairly smooth to the eye, and has a small medulla to shaft ratio. The medulla is the centre part of the hair. Next we have a blonde human hair, although this has been dyed, so it can be a bit trickier to discern that it was originally brown also, as the dyes in hair dye can change the look of hair cells under the microscope. Third, this is a cat hair. As you can see, compared to a human hair it’s almost see through and the medulla is made of tiny spots. And last a dog hair. Similar to the cat, although the medulla is much thinner.”

Ella switched images and replaced them with the one found on Luna Firestone’s body. “This is the hair found on Luna Firestone’s body.” It was a cat hair, or at least Chloe thought it was a cat hair.

“I think Luna owned a cat,” Chloe said, flicking through her notes on Luna.

“Yes she did, several cat hairs were found on her. But this one doesn’t match those.” Ella hit more keys and brought up more microscope images of hair. These all looked similar, but not the same as the one Ella had kept on the screen. “These are all from Luna’s cat - including one gathered from the cat itself for comparison. You can tell by the way the hair is coloured that these hairs are all from the same cat, but that one is not.”

“So the killer also owns a cat?” Dan asked.

“Maybe. Or had been near one before they went to the Haunted House,” Ella said.

* * *

  
Chloe didn’t know if this cat-owning revelation would help her narrow down her killer suspects, but at least it might help them identify the killer later on. “Ok Ella, you also mentioned something about a lead on the brand?”

“Yeah - so I looked into those Thermo Cautery Units. You need a medical license and almost $2000 to buy those things, but it’s easy to fake a medical license, and come up with the scratch for these if you really want one. These are the most recent purchases of these products from medical supply stores in the LA region and online in the last 6 months.” Ella handed Chloe a pile of papers.

“There’s over 5000 names on here,” Chloe said. Ella grimaced sympathetically.

“I highlighted all the in-store cash-only purchases, and any purchases paid with a pre-paid credit card that I could find. That narrows it down quite a bit. I also marked legitimate doctors' offices and body artists who brought more than one unit at a time. I also ran a report to see if any of these units had been stolen in the last 12 months, and there’s about 30-40 on that list.” Ella handed more paper to Chloe. “If you find out anything more, I can try to narrow down the search for you. I’ll also see if the ME or crime scene find anything else helpful.”

Chloe drank the last of her coffee - she was going to need it. “Thanks, Ella. Hopefully, we can catch this guy and then we can all go celebrate on Halloween.”

“Sorry I couldn’t narrow that list down more for you,” Ella said, apologetically. The other three left the lab and Ella sighed. Then she turned the microscope on, put her ear-buds in her ears and got to work on her analysis’ for the day. Apart from Chloe’s two cases, she had evidence from a new homicide the evening before she needed to process as well as some other pieces for ongoing cases.

Having returned to the conference room she’d commandeered the previous day, Chloe added ‘killer owns cat/in vicinity of cat’ under Luna Firestone’s name on her side of the whiteboard. She also added that Marcus Langrove’s alibi had checked out - he’s been at a pool hall trouncing someone at the time Luna was killed. The pool hall owner had provided the security footage and Marcus could be clearly seen playing pool Dan had gone to start runs on the names on the list Ella had given Chloe.

“So we’re looking for a fan of felines for Miss Firestone’s murder, which quite frankly explains everything,” Lucifer stated. Chloe had to bite the inside of her cheek to keep from smiling. For someone who didn’t like cats, Lucifer had a tendency to act like a human version of one quite often. Chloe turned back to the board and studied it, adding a few more minor notes. Lucifer thought for a moment, then tapped beside Luna’s name. “Didn’t you say that the cretin Lt. Harmon interviewed mentioned something about a ‘big guy’ staring at Miss Firestone the whole time he was there?”

“So you were paying attention?” Chloe teased.

“Always when it’s you, Detective,” Lucifer replied.

“And yes, now that you mention it, he said say something like that. Maybe we can find this person on the CCTV footage,” Chloe wondered. “I’ll ask Ella if it came through from the crime scene.” She paced the room for a moment. “Let’s go interview the co-workers Branston Holland mentioned. Maybe they knew more about Luna’s personal life.”

Just as Chloe reached her desk to grab her jacket and keys, Dan hailed her. “There’s one cash purchase here that seems like it might be a good lead, as well as two of the thefts. The cash purchase was from a small medical supplies store and the guy who purchased it was acting very shady, according to the clerk. Wore sunglasses the whole time, wouldn’t look directly at the clerk. But his paperwork was all in order, and the clerk couldn’t prevent the sale since his paperwork looked genuine. I’m going to go over and talk to him some more, see if he remembers what this guy looks like. Have you got a picture of the guy you suspect?”

Chloe handed Dan copies of both the clean-cut, normal looking Joe Poole from a photo Fletcher Stevens had sent over, and the grimy, lanky haired version of him from the park photo. “What about the thefts?”

“Yeah, so one of those was really weird. Guy went into one of those body modification places and was asking lots of questions about how they learnt to do the branding, and so they let him talk to the person there who does that and apparently the modifier - I don’t know what the word is, had to answer a phone call and the guy just up and stole his machine and walked right out of the shop. The other one, which is the weird one, happened when a guy went into a different place and asked for a branding to be done. Turns out the branding he wanted was very similar to the symbol on the vics’ and he was creepily happy about the experience of getting branded. I know some people enjoy pain but the girl on the phone said this guy took it to a whole other level and made everyone a little it uncomfortable. He was also kinda of preachy, but it didn’t really make any sense to her. She left the room to go and get more supplies to give him to keep the wound clean so he got a scar but not an infection, and when she came back he was gone, and so was her machine. She’s been out with the flu and only just saw the news this morning. She was going to ring on her lunch break after putting two and two together,” Dan said.

“Take her first,” Chloe said. “That last guy sounds like our suspect. No reason to get a branding like that - that isn’t a symbol from any specific religion or cult or anything unless you intended on using it for something else as well. Lucifer and I are going to interview Luna’s co-workers, see if we can find out who else might have wanted her dead.” Dan nodded. His phone rang, and he excused himself to answer it. Chloe and Lucifer headed towards the elevator, and Chloe made a quick stop by Ella’s lab to ask the forensic tech about the surveillance tapes.

* * *

Chloe pulled up in front of the building housing Holland Entertainment’s offices. It was a typical office building for downtown LA, a tower of offices stacked on top of each other in shining chrome and glass. The building itself was fairly unobtrusive, fitting in with its neighbours, and Chloe would never have guessed it housed a multi-million dollar entertainment company from the outside.

“Not much for advertising their business, are they?” Lucifer commented, as he and Chloe walked towards the front door of the building.

“No. I would never have guessed there was an entertainment company housed here from the outside,” Chloe said, going through the door as Lucifer held it open for her. She walked over to the reception desk, manned by an older woman with her hair pulled back in a bun so severe it gave Chloe a headache just to look at it. She palmed her badge and held it up discreetly. The receptionist glanced at the badge and let out a small annoyed sound.

“I take it you’re here to see Vaughn? He’s in his office.” The woman reached for the phone but Chloe stopped her.

“Actually, I’m here to talk to Branston Holland,” Chloe explained. The woman looked puzzled for a moment than a brief flash of sorrow crossed her face.

“Ah yes, Branston said to let him know immediately if the police asked to speak with him. I think he’s in a meeting, but it should be nearly finished. Let me contact his assistant,” the receptionist pressed a button on the phone and tapped her earpiece. “Kieran, it’s Marion at the front desk. The police are here to speak with Branston.” She waited for the response. “Of course. Right away.” She ended the call and looked at Chloe. “If you take the elevator to floor 13, Kieran, Branston’s assistant will meet you.”

Chloe and Lucifer entered the elevator and rode up to floor 13. As the doors opened, a harried looking man of African descent hurried over to them. Chloe held up her badge as he approached.

“Ah, yes. Detective Decker, and Mr Morningstar I believe? I’m Kieran. Kieran Lloyd, Branston’s assistant. His meeting will be over in a few minutes, and he asked me to show you to his office if you happened to come by while he was tied up.” Kieran lead them through several cubicles filled with noise and chatter, and through to an office at the far side of the room. He opened the door and showed them inside. The room had been decorated simply but comfortably. There were small framed posters of different films and tv shows, obviously produced by Holland Entertainment on the walls, some of them signed. An efficient black desk stood in front of windows overlooking most of downtown LA, and a matching bookcase was filled with books and various momentos. A computer sat quietly humming in screensaver mode on Branston’s desk. Two visitors' chairs, covered in forest green suede sat in front of the desk, matching the desk chair behind it. Kieran looked at his watch. “Branston will join you shortly. Is there anything I can get you?”

“No, thanks,” Chloe said, studying the room thoughtfully. Kieran nodded and left, closing the door behind him, although not after giving Lucifer a look that said quite clearly that he’d enjoy doing all sorts of delightfully wicked things with him. Lucifer smirked at Chloe, who just rolled her eyes at him.

“I believe I was just sexually violated by the look the delightful Kieran just gave me,” Lucifer said cheerfully. “Not, of course, that I’d take him up on the offer. I’m strictly a one-Detective Devil now, but it’s nice to know I’ve still got it.”

“It never went away,” Chloe muttered, determined not to stroke her boyfriend’s ridiculous ego. A few minutes later, Branston walked into his office.

“Detective Decker, Mr. Morningstar. Do you have any news about Luna?” Branston came in and sat on the edge of his desk, facing Chloe and Lucifer in the visitor’s chairs.

“We have a couple of leads we’re following up.” Chloe didn’t want to give too much away in case her murderer found out. “We were hoping you might be able to answer some more questions though, Mr Holland.”

“Ask away. But please, call me Branston. Mr Holland is my father.” Branston stood and walked over to a small mini-fridge in the corner of his office. He pulled out a bottle of water. “Can I offer either of you some water?”

Chloe and Lucifer both shook their hands. Branston came back over to the desk, taking a drink from the bottle. “Did Luna ever file any complaints against anyone at the Haunted House, whether it be a crew member or a member of the public?”

Branston frowned in thought for a moment, then shook his head. “Not recently, to my knowledge. I would have been informed, as I have made it policy, that I am informed of all complaints to make sure they get handled properly. Before I was in charge, there had been a few incidents where complaints hadn’t been handled well, so I want to avoid that. I mean, she could have and I just haven’t been made aware of it yet, but I pulled all complaint files yesterday afternoon, trying to find some more answers and I didn’t see anything recent. There was a, well, not quite a complaint, more of a comment made, that she thought someone was watching her specifically, the whole time she was working when she did a couple of shifts at the Mermaid Palace. She did some more at a later time and it didn’t happen then, so she thought she’d been imagining things.”

“Do you have any more information on that?” Chloe asked, the complaint triggering a thought in her mind. From the brief glance Lucifer gave her, she could see he had thought the same thing - was it the same person at the Haunted House that night.

“Sure.” Branston stood and went around his desk. “I’ll just print it out for you. Is there anything else?”

Chloe thought and then decided to go with her gut. “Do you know if anyone on the crew that night owns a cat?”

“A cat? Sorry, I really don’t know. Julia, one of the cast, dresses up as a zombie cat from time to time, if that’s helpful,” Branston said. A printer whirred, and he reached down near the floor of his desk and came back up with a few papers. “Here’s all the information I have on the complaint.”

“Thanks Branston, you’ve been very helpful.” Chloe rose.

“Detective, I’m sure you know by now, but Luna didn’t have any next of kin. If it’s possible, I'd like to organise for her burial arrangements with her friends from the crew and her school. Do you think that would be appropriate?”

Chloe smiled at Branston. “I’m sure it would be fine. I can give your details to the coroner’s office and they can contact you when Luna’s body is allowed to be released. That should be in the next day or two.”

Branston looked at Chloe and Lucifer. “I know it seems weird for a boss to pay for that sort of thing, but it’s like I said, we’re like a family here. Even if we don’t know each other really, really well, we still all knew each other. We celebrate everyone’s birthdays, have group activities like bowling and karaoke nights, celebrate weddings and commiserate the death of loved ones. I want my employees to feel like they actually matter to the company, so I do my best to help them in any way I can.”

“Actually Branston, it seems like the sort of thing a good boss would do if the situation called for it and they were in a position to do so,” Lucifer said. “I have quite a few employees at my club, and I would want to do the same for any of them. And whilst I rarely go to bowling nights, I do know which ones are studying at college, who has younger siblings or children they are looking after, who has a sick family member. So I understand the gesture.”

Branston looked relieved at this statement. Then he smiled. “Of course, your last name, Morningstar. I should have put it together sooner. You own LUX. I actually met my wife there on a blind date about a year after you opened. She wasn’t my date, but my date never showed. Neither did hers.”


	8. Feed My Frankenstein

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Interviews and lunch. Glimpses of fluffy!Devil.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for all the comments and kudos! I'm sorry if I don't reply to all the comments but I do read them all. It makes me happy to see them. :)
> 
> 26/Dec/20: Edited for grammar, spelling and the occasional unfinished thought or missing sentence.

Chloe looked at the list of names and addresses on her phone. Ella had put them in order of how far away they were from the precinct and listed their approximate driving time from the crime scene. Chad Yancey, the security tech, lived closest to the crime scene, then Terry Hastings and finally Sidney Dustan, who lived closest to the Holland Entertainment offices and about the same distance away from the crime scene as Terry. Turning her car indicators on, she told Lucifer her plan of interviews.

“All right. Let’s go visit Sidney Dustan first - she’s the make-up artist and volunteer at the exits. Then we’ll visit Terry Hastings who is Holland’s second in command, and finally Chad Yancey who only lives a few blocks form the crime scene and is the security tech. I want to do another walk through the crime scene to see if we missed anything after we’ve interviewed these people.”

“And see if we can find a cat?” Lucifer said, the disdain evident in his voice.

“Well, maybe.” Chloe navigated her way through downtown traffic until she was able to head off into the more suburban areas of the city.

Sidney lived in a modest little townhouse on the outskirts of downtown LA. Someone’s bicycle was chained up on the porch next to a tiny patio table set. Someone, presumably Sidney, had tried to cheer up the otherwise plain frontage with a large low-lying concrete planter painted in a bright shiny blue. The owner had filled it with pumpkins and little Halloween figures. A wreath of autumn leaves was decorating the front door. Lucifer nodded towards the decorations outside of the house. “Well, someone tried to cheer the place up, I suppose. The owners clearly didn’t do much with the place.”

“Oh?” Chloe turned towards Lucifer. She knew he had an interest in real estate, so she was interested to hear what he meant.

“Well, a bit of landscaping, a bit of modernisation, they could actually make quite a bit more money from these townhouses, rather than what they’re currently earning,” Lucifer explained, looking up from his phone where he’d been looking up property prices in the area. “So it seems that our make-up artist is living within her means.” He shrugged and put his phone away.

“Well, something to keep in mind,” Chloe said as they reached the door to the town house. She knocked on the door and waited. There was a thud, the sound of glass breaking and someone swearing. Chloe opened her jacket and placed a hand on her gun, and she signalled to Lucifer, who took a step up beside her. The door opened, abruptly stopped by the security chain, only to be slammed shut and they could hear the chain being undone. A short blonde pony-tailed young woman opened the door, colour rising in her cheeks.

“Uh, hi?” she greeted them, a quizzical look on her face.

“Sidney Dustan?” Chloe showed the young woman her badge. “I’m Detective Chloe Decker, this is my partner Lucifer Morningstar. We’re here about Luna Firestone.” Sidney’s eyes filled with tears, but she blinked furiously. She stepped back, opening the door.

“Oh, okay. Do you want to come in?” Chloe and Lucifer entered the small town house. It was furnished in cheap-but-sturdy furniture, bright colours and soft throws. Part of a broken glass sat on the bench, the rest of the shards on the floor. Sidney waved vaguely at the broken glass. “Sorry about the mess. I wasn’t expecting anyone, and you scared me when you knocked. I thought it might have been my neighbour Louie - he gets drunk and kind of grabby.” She walked towards a couch that did double duty as part of her dining set, and sat, folding her legs beneath her.

“Sidney, how well did you know Luna?” Chloe asked, sitting across the table from Sidney.

“I mean, we weren’t BFFs or anything, but sometimes we’d get coffee, or go and see a movie together. There’s a vintage cinema not far from here that often plays old horror movies, and we’d go watch Dracula or Frankenstein or whatever was showing together.” Sidney wiped a tear that had fallen down her cheek. “She was really nice - great with her kids at the school.”

“Did she have a boyfriend or girlfriend? Anyone who might have been jealous or just wanted her gone?”

Sidney shook her head. “No. She had had a boyfriend, Kyle, but they broke up about a year ago and he’s in Colorado now. They didn’t fight or anything, they never really loved each other though. I think maybe Luna loved Kyle a bit more than he loved her, but it wasn’t enough to keep them together when Kyle got offered a job in Colorado. I can’t think of anyone who’d want to do this to her.”

“Did you know about the problem she had with Marcus Langrove?” Chloe asked.

“Is that the parent from the school?” Chloe nodded. Sidney sniffed and continued. “Yeah, I knew about that. We talked about that over coffee the day before she... But I don’t think he’d hurt her - I mean, murder would get him locked up, not able to spend more time with his kid. Seems kinda of dumb if you ask me.”

“Did you notice anyone paying more attention to Luna than anybody else on the night of her murder?” Chloe noted down that Sidney and Luna had spoken of the dispute with Marcus Langrove. That meant it was potentially something that could be used to lure Luna to stay back or to frame someone else.

“I really wasn’t on the floor much. Tiana was having a meltdown over her make-up so I was constantly in the back area fixing her face or on the side door.” Sidney looked pointedly at Chloe and said, “Tiana is a supreme pain in the butt. She thinks she can act because she had a tiny bit part on a cable tv ad once. When she was like, 5!”

Just then heavy footsteps could be heard on Sidney’s porch, along with a drunken sniffle. A loud BANG indicated something hitting the door. Chloe stood and drew her weapon from its holster. Lucifer, who was standing near the door, looked at Chloe, who nodded. He opened the door. A heavily built man who reeked of stale beer and cigarettes, wearing only a stained t-shirt and a pair of not-well-fitting jeans, stumbled inside.

“Shh-idney! Whhoosa pretttty gurrl!” he said, flinging his arms around. He noticed Chloe and said, “Nnother pretty gurrl! Booobies!” and attempted to stumble towards Chloe, meaty hands outstretched. Lucifer simply grabbed the back of his t-shirt and held him back.

“Those, admittedly lovely, boobies aren’t yours,” he said. The man tried unsuccessfully to shake himself free of Lucifer’s hold. “Excuse me, ladies, whilst I take out this rubbish.” Lucifer hauled the drunken man outside, closing the front door behind him. Chloe turned to look at Sidney, who was looking pale and uneasy.

“Are you okay, Sidney?” she asked gently.

“Oh, um.” Sidney, who had shot up into a standing position as soon as her neighbour had banged into the door, sat quickly back down again and put her head between her knees. Chloe went and crouched in front of her, but still giving her space. “Normally the chain holds, or my house-mate is here, so it’s not so bad. He’s just huge and very drunk and very strong.”

“It’s okay to be afraid of him. That sort of behaviour isn’t acceptable.” Chloe would call a squad car to come and get the drunken assailant in a moment. Lucifer would deal with him for now.

“I think the woman who lived here before me just let him have what he wanted, and now he thinks he can get away with behaving like that. We’ve called the cops a few times, but since they’ve never been able to catch him doing anything or trying to do anything, there’s not much they’ve been able to do except tell him to stay away. Which works for about a week.”

At that moment, Lucifer stuck his head back in through the front door. “He’s waiting in the car for you, Detective.”

Lucifer neglected to mention Louie now had two broken fingers, and a bruised kidney, but he decided not to traumatise the young woman they were interviewing any more than she already was. Really, he had been more ham-handed than a teenage boy on his first date, but some things were Just. Not. Done. For all that Lucifer had been (and still was to his Detective) a purveyor of desire, and had seen humanity’s capacity for weird, unusual or down right explicit sexual gratification, he was not one to allow anything that one of the participating parties didn’t want to do. Consent was, to his mind, extremely important when it came to fulfilling desires. He stood on the tiny little porch, wishing desperately for a drink, but his flask was in the glove compartment of the Detective’s car, as he knew she preferred he didn’t drink when they were on duty. A few minutes later, Chloe came out of the town house, already on the phone to dispatch for a cruiser to pick up one Louis ‘Louie’ Calbretti.

* * *

Chloe pulled up out the front of Terry Hastings’ house. It was a tidy double-story Spanish-style house with a well-tended front yard. A small child’s bike lay on the front lawn with a brightly coloured ball nearby. An older man was carefully hand-watering several plants using a watering can. He turned and noticed Chloe and Lucifer approaching the house.

“¿Hola puedo ayudarte? Mi hija y mi yerno están trabajando.”

Chloe’s Spanish was spotty at best, so she was glad to have Lucifer with her to translate, which he did. “Hastings and his wife are at work.”

The older man seemed to realise that Lucifer was translating for Chloe and smiled patiently. “Ask him when Hastings will be back, and where Hastings works,” Chloe said.

“Soy el detective Decker y yo soy Lucifer Morningstar, estamos en el departamento de policía de Los Ángeles. Queríamos hacerle algunas preguntas al señor Hastings sobre un colega suyo que fue asesinado.” Lucifer explained who they were and continued. “Dónde trabaja Terry y a qué hora estará en casa?”

“Ah, sí, se trata de esa pobre jovencita de la Casa Encantada.” The man blessed himself and continued. “Terry es abogado en una pequeña empresa financiera. No sé cuándo estará en casa. Sin embargo, tengo su tarjeta de presentación, si eso es útil.”

Lucifer nodded, and the man indicated he needed to go inside the house. He did so whilst Lucifer explained the conversation to Chloe. “Hastings is a lawyer at a financial firm, and his father-in-law doesn’t know when he’ll be back but has one of his business cards inside.”

“Good. At least we’ll be able to call by the financial firm then.” As Chloe spoke, the man came back out of the house, holding the business card triumphantly. He presented it to them and Chloe took it. “Thank you.”

“De nada, Detective.”

They headed back to the car and Chloe handed the business card to Lucifer. “Get up the directions for me, babe?”

Lucifer took the card and did so. 15 minutes later they pulled up out the front of a small building in a section of shops and offices that seemed to be well-established family-run businesses. J N & Q Walker Financial Services took up the first floor and most of the second floor of its building. It was a plain but tidy brick building with tinted windows and the company name emblazoned on one of those windows. The street was tidy; the buildings were all well kept if maybe slightly outdated. Chloe looked at Lucifer.

“Yes, Detective?” he enquired.

“Nothing, really. Just... thanks for sticking with me on this case. I know these kinds of cases aren’t easy and I really needed last night. More than I thought. I really think we might get somewhere today - even if it’s just eliminating more people.” Chloe tucked a stray piece of hair behind her ear and smiled at Lucifer. He took one of her hands and brought it to his lips.

“You’re welcome.” They sat for a few moments, then Chloe sighed and opened her door.

“Let’s get Hastings interviewed, then we can get lunch.”

“As long as it’s not vending sandwiches, we have a deal.”

Chloe laughed as they headed to the door of the financial firm. The door opened to a modern reception area that held touches of comfort in the plush leather seats in the waiting areas and the lush greenery in vases throughout the space. They approached the desk and Chloe once again palmed her badge and showed it to the man working behind it.

“Oh! What can I do for you... Detective?” he asked, reading the Detective title on her badge.

“I’m Detective Chloe Decker, and this is my partner, Mr Morningstar. We just had a few questions for Terry Hastings regarding a friend of his who was killed.” Chloe said quietly so as not to attract the attention of the nervous-looking couple seated in the waiting area. Lucifer, whose uncanny hearing allowed him to hear all kinds of things, had to bite the inside of his cheek not to laugh at the couple’s nervous chatter. From what he could piece together, as their conversation wasn’t exactly coherent, they had just gone for a sonograph appointment and found out they weren’t just expecting 1 tiny human, but 3. Admittedly, he also felt sorry for them but was very glad it wasn’t him. He supposed Beatrice and Charlie were both tolerable, but Beatrice was no longer small and sticky, and Charlie who was small and very sticky, he only had to take in small doses. He turned his attention back to his Detective who appeared to be waiting. A moment later a man in his mid-30s, wearing a dark grey suit with a pin stripe a few shades lighter, came out of one of the offices, and headed towards them.

“Detective Decker? I’m Terry Hastings.” he said, extending a hand to Chloe then Lucifer. “Why don’t we go to my office?”

Terry led them a short way down the hallway and into his office. He took a seat behind his desk and waited for Chloe and Lucifer to sit in his visitor’s chairs. The furniture in the office matched the furniture in the outer area - good-quality, comfortable and efficient. “So how can I help Detective? Everyone’s shocked and upset by Luna’s death.”

“How well did you know Luna, Mr Hastings?”

“Please, call me Terry. My wife actually knew her better than I did - they actually met at a fitness class and that’s how Luna learned about the Haunted Houses and other things that Bran runs. She was into theatre and loved vintage horror movies, so I told her to come along and audition a few years ago. She impressed Bran and I, and he hired her immediately since we had a space available at the Haunted House that year. Luna was a lovely person - got on well with everyone, took the younger crew under her wing if they needed it, was happy to fill in at any of Bran’s locations if she wasn’t working at the school. She wasn’t able to do as much this year, as she’d gotten more classes.” Terry folded his hands on his desk. “I can’t think of anyone in the crew she had a problem with or that had a problem with her.”

Chloe flipped through her notebook to give herself a moment to think. So far everyone was painting a fairly solid picture of a well-liked, pleasant woman in her mid-twenties who loved teaching, drama and classic horror films. “Did you notice anyone paying particular attention to Luna? Either on the night she was killed or on other nights.”

Terry frowned and pursed his lips. “Now that you mention it, Luna said she thought she could feel someone watching her, but it’s so dark in the Haunted House she couldn’t pinpoint it. It’s not uncommon, unfortunately, for some guests to pay more attention to some of our crew members more than others - especially our prettier or more handsome crew members if they’re not made up to be especially scary looking.”

Chloe leant forward slightly. “We have a statement from someone stating that a ‘big guy’ was watching Luna - to the point of not taking his eyes off her. Do you remember anyone like that there?”

“Like I said Detective, it’s pretty dark in there, but maybe there was a pretty big guy a few nights in a row. Usually dressed like Frankenstein’s monster, I think. But there is also a guy who’s come along a few times dressed like a lumberjack. Could be one of them. I bet Chad’s got them on the footage from the other nights.” Terry looked at Chloe. “I hope that’s helpful, Detective. I’d like to do as much as I can to help find Luna’s killer.”

“Do you by chance own a cat?”

“No, Emilio, my father-in-law, is very allergic. Luna used to use a lint brush before she came inside our house to get rid of any tiny furs left behind by her cat,” Terry said, with a soft smile.

“Thanks for your time, Terry. If you think of anything, or if anyone tells you something no matter how inconspicuous, please let me know.” Chloe stood and handed Terry one of her cards.

“Certainly Detective. Let me show you out.”

* * *

Lucifer drove to their next destination while Chloe updated her notes on the case and called both Dan and Ella for updates on their progress. Knowing that their last interview was near the crime scene, he headed in that direction and pulled into the parking lot of a little mom-and-pop style restaurant he’d been to before. Chloe looked up from her phone, where she’d been looking at photos. They were sketches from the body modifier who had needed to sketch the pattern she was going to imprint onto her client. They matched pretty much perfectly to the symbols left on the victims.

“Where are we?” she asked, not recognising the restaurant.

“Just a little place I’ve been to once or twice. Nothing fancy, and it’s close to Chad Yancey and the crime scene,” Lucifer explained. “You did mention lunch before we interviewed Hastings, remember?”

“Yeah. Okay, we’ll go get some lunch.” Chloe kissed his cheek and got out of the car. As they got closer to the entrance, the scent of home-style cooking hit their noses and Chloe’s stomach stood up and paid attention. “Well, I guess I was hungrier than I thought.”

After entering the restaurant, they took a window booth and looked at the menu. Lucifer had been right in his choice, Chloe decided. The weather had begun to cool off as autumn took over and the air outside that day was brisk. The daily special included spicy chicken sliders served on Hawaiian bread, and with a wave of nostalgia for her father, Chloe decided to order it. Their server came over to take their order.

“Hi there! Are you two ready to order? If you want the Hawaiian bread sliders, you’d better order because we’re almost out of Hawaiian bread.”

“I’ll get the sliders and a ginger ale, please,” Chloe said.

“Make it two of each,” Lucifer said. He’d refilled his flask that morning and didn’t mind a cheeky little whiskey ginger from time to time. Once the server left to place their orders, Chloe brought up the sketches on her phone.

“Look at these,” she said, giving her phone to Lucifer. He studied the pictures for a moment then handed Chloe’s phone back to her.

“They match almost perfectly, don’t they, with the ones on the victims,” he said. Chloe nodded, studying the photos again. In an attempt to make her smile, Lucifer commented. “Seems like Dan’s vacation might have helped us out then. Gave his brain cell time to recharge.”

Chloe let out a small, undignified sound that might have been a snort of laughter at the comment.

“Either way, it helps that this body artist is observant and weirded out by the guy. Even better, she’s going to draw a sketch of him - she asked Dan not to show her the photo until she’d finished. And if it matches Poole, we can monitor him. We may even be able to stretch it to a search warrant if we find a willing judge.” A look crossed Lucifer’s face and Chloe shook her head. “Nope, can’t do it that way. The department’s being audited, so everything has to be done by the book. No favours.”

“And how are you going to explain my mojo, Detective?” Lucifer looked slightly miffed.

“Oh, actually Ella came up with an explanation we can use and it’s not exactly a lie. We’re going to say you studied neuro-linguistic programming, and that combined with your charisma, you can get people to tell you things they otherwise wouldn’t tell someone like a police officer. I mean, that pretty much is what your mojo does, and you have studied people, and you’re very charismatic,” Chloe said, selling the story as hard as she could. Lucifer stuck his tongue in the side of his cheek, then spoke.

“Fine. I will go along with this if I am required to - as you say, it’s not exactly a lie, more like a stretching of the truth.” The server appeared bearing their lunches and drinks.

“Here you go! Enjoy!” She placed their orders on the table and bounced away.

“She’s got more bounce than Ella,” Lucifer said, blinking as he watched the waitress move across the room.

“I noticed that.” Chloe bit into her slider. The chicken had been pulled and marinated in some kind of marinade, which left it tender and spicy, although not so hot as to be unpleasant. There was sliced tomato, a herby mayonnaise and leafy greens to soften the spice just enough. “Mmm. These are amazing.”

Lucifer indulged himself for a moment watching his Detective eat. She often forgot to look after herself as much as she should, because of her sense of obligation to everyone else. By the time she remembered to feed herself or take a break when a case was particularly hot, she wound up with vending sandwiches and a quick catnap in the parking garage. He now actively took the time to feed her, even if he had to force her into doing it by inviting others along like he had yesterday. That she had actively thought about it today meant she was feeling optimistic about her cases and potentially even listening to her body. She would never realise how much it pleased him to tend to her, but he also knew she was still fiercely independent and, like him, stuck in her ways in a lot of things.

“What are you staring at?” Chloe asked, tilting her head to one side, noticing Lucifer’s gaze was still on her.

“Just my favourite thing to look at,” he said, grinning at her. Chloe rolled her eyes, but grinned back.

“Oh, you.”

They finished lunch and, after paying with a decent tip, left the restaurant to head to Chad Yancey’s address. It turned out to be a small four-storey apartment building, build from grey bricks in a very industrial style. The coated chain-link fence created an even more industrial feel to the area. There was what looked to be a basketball court painted on the asphalt to one side of the building and car-parking on the other. Chloe was the first one out of the car, having let Lucifer drive to this location as well. She’d wanted to read some more of the updates that had come in. The crime lab had found a fingerprint on Luna’s costume that didn’t match anyone, and there was a partial not matching fingerprint on one of the candle’s left at the Himi crime scene. It was being run through the system, but they weren’t sure if there was enough for a match.

Walking up to the apartments, Chloe looked for number 18. It was the third from the left on the second level, so she began to head up the stairs, Lucifer’s long stride keeping up with hers. Chloe pressed the buzzer on the door of apartment 18 and held up her badge to the viewscreen. A melodious male voice emitted from the speaker. “Be just a minute.”

Taking not much longer than that, a young man of African-American descent opened the door. His neon-blue hair had been arranged in gelled spikes, and his left ear was lined with tiny silver hoops from top to bottom. “Hey - you’re the detectives looking after Luna, right?”

Chloe nodded. “I’m Detective Decker and this is my partner, Lucifer Morningstar.”

“Hey - you own that sweet nightclub, LUX, don’t you?” Chad gave Lucifer a double-finger gun salute and stepped back so they could enter his apartment. “How can I help your investigation Detective?”

Chad’s apartment was furnished in a gamer’s wet-dream - an enormous flat-screen tv, currently turned off, filled almost one entire wall, faced by a comfortable looking black couch with cup holders, recline function and remote holder. There was an equally large-sale desk and computer on a desk in the corner where several screens were running various programs, including something with a driving bass and voices speaking unintelligibly. Chad hurried over to the desk and pressed a few keys. The music and voices instantly quieted.

“Sorry, I was working when you got here.” He said, waving a hand at the desk.

“How well did you know Luna, Chad?” Chloe asked, getting straight to the point. Chad scratched his chin as he picked up a glass from the bench near the open-plan kitchen.

“Not real well, to be honest. I spend most of my nights watching the camera’s making sure no-one is doing anything illegal or having a medical episode. We don’t want some poor person having a fit or a panic attack or whatever getting trampled by the crowd. I can signal to whichever of our backstage crew is closest via their walkie-talkies, and they can go fetch them. So I don’t have a lot of interaction with the crew. Some I do, because we’re gamers or into fantasy football, but other not so much.” Chad shrugged and turned to fill the glass with water from the tap. “I don’t even like scary movies. I saw IT when I was a kid and it freaked me out so bad I couldn’t walk in the rain for like, 3 years.”

“But you work surveillance in a Haunted House?” Lucifer asked, sceptically.

“The pay is good and I know it’s fake. Besides, Branston’s a decent guy to work for and I’ve done other projects for him. More video based - I make short films and advertisements, as well as doing some concept work for game companies and stuff. I do most of the video ads for Holland Entertainment’s online advertisements.” Chad sipped some water and continued. “It’s a steady money maker, so I’m appreciative for the work. Plus, I can set my own hours, which is an advantage.”

“Did you see anyone on the night Luna was killed or any of the nights previous, who seemed to be paying a lot of attention to her. Constantly looking at her or watching her. We have reports of a ‘big guy’ staring at her the night she died,” Chloe asked.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Spanish Translation: I used Google Translate so any mistakes are mine. 
> 
> ¿Hola puedo ayudarte? Mi hija y mi yerno están trabajando. - “Can I help you? My daughter and son-in-law are at work.”
> 
> “Soy el detective Decker y yo soy Lucifer Morningstar, estamos en el departamento de policía de Los Ángeles. Queríamos hacerle algunas preguntas al señor Hastings sobre un colega suyo que fue asesinado. - “This is Detective Decker and I am Lucifer Morningstar, we are with the LA Police department. We wanted to ask Mr Hastings some questions about a colleague of his who was killed.”  
> Dónde trabaja Terry y a qué hora estará en casa? - “Where does Terry work and what time will he be home?”
> 
> Ah, sí, se trata de esa pobre jovencita de la Casa Encantada. - “Ah yes, this is about that poor young girl at the Haunted House.” 
> 
> Terry es abogado en una pequeña empresa financiera. No sé cuándo estará en casa. Sin embargo, tengo su tarjeta de presentación, si eso es útil. - “Terry is a lawyer at a small financial firm. I don’t know when he’ll be home. I have his business card though, if that is helpful.”


	9. Under My Bed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chloe and Lucifer begin to close in on one killer. The Devil's expansive tastes may prove useful with the other one.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 26/Dec/20: Edited for grammar, spelling, missed words, etc.

“Uh, actually there was this one guy in particular. I couldn’t actually see who he was looking at specifically, but I can bring up the previous night’s vision - I’m pretty sure he’s on that too.” Chad placed the glass back on the counter and jogged over to his desk. “I upload the footage to a private server Branston keeps, the day after each session at the House, so we’ve got it for insurance purposes etc. I don’t have the footage from the night Luna died, the crime scene guys took that, but I can show you all the previous ones.” Chad clicked and typed and then brought something up on the central monitor. “Here it is - this is a view of the front entrance from inside. It’s a camera mounted on top of one of the fluorescent lights. Now I’m running it at triple speed because he doesn’t show up for a little while.”

They watched dozens and dozens of people wander through the doors of the Haunted House. Zombies, vampires, superheros, cartoon characters, sexy versions of all kinds of professions and things, more angels and devils than could be counted.

“There he is!” Chad announced suddenly, pausing the video. He zoomed in on a tall, muscular man dressed as Lurch from The Addams Family - which for Chloe rang close enough to Frankenstein’s creation for it to send a bell pinging. “I don’t think he’s wearing lifts in his shoes either, he’s just super tall.”

“Can you follow him?” Chloe asked.

“Sure.” Chad typed something and several smaller windows popped up. Chloe realised these were the other cameras from the main areas of the Haunted House. Chad started the video again, and they watched the man make his way slowly through the attraction, glimpsing Luna in her nurse’s costume several times with the man’s eyes intent on her whenever she was seen. He doubled back several times, evidently when she’d disappeared from view.

“Chad, can I get a copy of this and all previous night's security footage?” Chloe asked. Chad pulled a memory card from a container on the desk and inserted it into the computer. He clicked a few buttons, and the computer hummed gently for a second, then a light blinked. Chad pulled the memory card out and handed it to Chloe.

“That’s all the footage,” he said. Chloe took the memory card and put it securely in her inner jacket pocket.

“Thanks, Chad. That will be very helpful. If you think of anything else, let me know.” She handed him one of her cards and began to walk towards the door. “Oh, one last thing. You don’t happen to own a cat, do you?”

“Actually, I do.” Chad stood and walked over to his couch. He bent and picked up something from the couch. Chloe realised after a moment it was a hairless cat. Chad scratched the cat between its ears, setting off a wave of purring. “This is Cookie - she’s a Sphynx cat.” Cookie jumped down from Chad’s arms and twined herself between his legs, rubbing her head affectionately against them. “She doesn’t shed, but she does still produce dander, so she’s not an allergy-free cat like a lot of people think. I rescued her about 3 years ago. Her previous owner didn’t know how to look after her skin, so she was covered in sores and they had had her declawed. Makes it hard for her to land safely when she jumps because she can’t use her claws to grip, as well as causing other problems. We had a regular cat who was born without fur when I was a kid - it’s a gene flaw that happens sometimes, and is how Sphynxes were bred in the first place, so I know how to look after a cat without fur. That was one thing I did talk to Luna about - she rescued Sparky, her cat, from the same place I got Cookie.”

“Could you give me the name of the rescue? It might be relevant.” Chloe told Chad.

“Sure. I’ve got one of their flyers here somewhere.” Chad rummaged through some papers on a table near his desk. “Here!” He gestured triumphantly and gave Chloe the flyer.

“Thanks. Let me know if you think of anything else.” Chloe gave Chad one of her cards and made a note to herself to refill them when she got back to the station, as that was the last one she had on her. She and Lucifer left the apartment and headed towards her car. Lucifer offered her the keys, which she took, and they got in.

“I want to go by the crime scene. Now that we’ve seen the way that both Luna and the guy dressed up like Lurch from the Addams family went through the House I want to do a walk thorough to re-trace that path and see if we find anything or see anything that might open this case wider.” Chloe said as she navigated through the streets towards the crime scene. “You didn’t get any ‘I’m a murderer’ vibes from Chad, did you?”

“Maybe of his hair with that colouring, but no, he seemed very unlikely to be the killer.” Lucifer said. A few minutes later they arrived at the warehouse that housed the Holland Entertainment Haunted House. There was a pair of uniforms in a squad car, keeping an eye on the scene until it could be released back to Branston Holland. Chloe went over to let them know what she was doing and they decided to go on their scheduled break a few minutes early, with her permission. She signalled to Lucifer, and they ducked under the crime scene tape and headed towards the building. Chloe imputed the new security code and opened the door. Lucifer, with his celestial abilities allowing him to see quite well in the dark, turned to face the light switch and turned it on, plunging the scene into bright fluorescent relief. “I take it I’m playing our suspicious character and you’re going to be Miss Firestone?”

“That’s about right,” Chloe said. “Ella just sent through some of the surveillance footage from the night of the murder, from just before Lurch enters until he leaves the first time, and she found him on there a second time, so she sent that through as well.” Chloe loaded the video on her phone and gestured for Lucifer to watch it with her. They watched it through, then Chloe sent it to Lucifer. “Let’s try to be as accurate as possible so we’ll both monitor the video as we go through.”

Chloe walked off to where Luna had been when their suspect had first entered the attraction. “Okay, I’m in place.”

Glancing at the video loaded on his own phone, Lucifer made his way through the Haunted House, retracing the suspect's steps that night. On the first walk through he noticed nothing unusual, but as he made his way through again, he realised that the suspect had removed something from his pocket on the second round, as his suit jacket sat differently.

“Detective, go back to the end of the first walk through,” he called to Chloe. She stuck her head out from the room that had been set up to look like an especially gory operating theatre, the main room Luna had worked in.

“Did you find something?”

“His suit jacket sits differently at the end of the first walk through than it does at the beginning of the second one. Like he has removed something from a pocket.” Lucifer explained. Chloe reviewed the footage and now that Lucifer, who would notice such things, had pointed it out to her, she could see it too.

“Okay. So somewhere between exiting the Haunted House for the first time, and entering it for the second time, he removed something - probably the scalpel or whatever he used to brand her with - from his jacket pocket, and hid it somewhere.” Chloe squinted at the video. “Any way you could tell what brand that suit is?”

Lucifer looked at the video. “Even on a bigger screen, with that lighting, I highly doubt it. Given his height and build, though, it’s probably bespoke.”

“Would it be easy to track down someone who made that kind of bespoke suit?” Chloe asked, knowing that all of Lucifer’s suits were bespoke - her Devil was not an off-the-rack man unless times were desperate.

“I could make a few calls and see if I can find out,” Lucifer said. “Did you find anything?”

“Potentially one of the scalpels used as set-dressing has gone missing, but if it’s a prop one that’s not going to be much use. I’ll contact Branston Holland and see who dressed the rooms. Other than that, it was a bit of a bust, really.” Chloe sighed. “Let’s get back to the station and see what the others have found.”

* * *

Chloe and Lucifer walked out of the elevator just as Ella and Jack entered the homicide level from the lab area. Ella signalled that she just needed a minute and broke away from Jack and headed to her lab. Jack waved a folder in Chloe’s direction and she headed towards him. “You got something for me?”

Jack shrugged. “Maybe. More than I had this morning, anyway, but I’m not sure how helpful it will be.”

They headed into the conference room, and Chloe updated the board with what they’d learnt. Ella came in shortly after, full of bustling energy, ponytail bobbing in her wake. Dan was still out in the field, having been asked to give a hand to a couple of newly minted detectives who were hunting the perpetrator of a drug deal gone south.

“So, the sketch from Hayley, the body artist, is an exact match to the marks left on Janie Peterson, Henry Morgan and Thomas Himi’s bodies. Dan sent me her sketch of the guy she thought stole from her,” Ella said, pinning up a piece of paper on the boards. Joe Poole’s face glared out at them, somewhere between the clean-shaven tidy appearance from the photo in the Eternal Worshipper’s database and the one from the picnic.

“That’s Josiah Poole.” Chloe said, stepping forward to compare the body artist’s sketch with the other photos. “Have we found anything liking him to the crime scenes?”

“If we can match that partial finger print to one of his, then definitely. Also, if you find the candles or the rocks, I can probably identify those as it appears the candles are all from the same batches, which means he probably brought them all at the same time or made them,” Ella said.

Jack stepped forward now, knowing Ella had delivered what she’d found out. “We may have something more on Miss Firestone’s killer. These are her phone records, incoming and outgoing. Over the past two weeks she had 30 missed calls from the same number, all while she was at work. They all rang just long enough for her answering service to pick them up. The number appears to be from a burner or prepaid phone, and no-one answers when it is called. I’m currently running a trace on the phone to see if we can at least locate where it was purchased from.”

“That’s fantastic work, Jack and Ella. We’ll go get Josiah Poole. We have just enough for a warrant based on Hayley’s sketches, plus the shop where she works agreed to release their surveillance footage to us.” Chloe paused and pulled the USB from Chad Yancey out of her pocket. “Speaking of surveillance footage, here’s all the footage from the Holland Entertainment Haunted House. See if you can hunt down more clues on our suspect. He’s dressed as Lurch from the Addams Family. Lucifer thinks his suit is probably bespoke, so he’s going to give me a list of tailors capable of doing such work. Let’s try to get this guy as well before Friday.” Chloe headed out of the conference room. When Lucifer made to go with her, she signalled him back. “I’m going to go talk to Lt. Harmon about an arrest warrant for Josiah Poole. We should have enough to get him, but the Lieutenant likes to know the full details first.”

Chloe left the room and headed towards Lt. Harmon’s office. She could see he was talking to another Detective - Harris, maybe? - and waited outside the office. After about 5 minutes, in which Chloe went over the facts of both cases in her head, the other detective came out of Lt. Harmon’s office at a quick walk and headed elsewhere. Waiting a few seconds, Chloe knocked on the door frame and stuck her head in. “Lieutenant?”

Harmon looked up from the paperwork on his desk. He’d much rather deal with Detective Decker than the paperwork he’d now need to fill out for Detective Harris. “Come in, Decker.”

Chloe entered and sat down in one of her Lieutenant’s visitor’s chairs. “We’ve had a break in the serial murders case and have potentially a major lead in the Luna Firestone case as well.”

“What kind of break?” Harmon asked, sitting forward in his chair to give Chloe his full attention. Chloe explained about the theft from the body artist, her sketches, the photo from the picnic and the Worshipper’s member files. She explained about Poole’s sealed juvenile record and the various arrests from his past. Then she asked for a search warrant for his residence, permission to get his juvenile record unsealed, and an arrest warrant.

“You’ve done a lot of work this week, Decker - good job. I’m not sure we’ll get the arrest warrant - defence attorney could argue that someone got the sketch from Poole. But you’ve definitely got enough to unseal his records, due to you suspecting him of being involved in the crimes at the very least, as well as enough to stretch that to a search warrant for his residence.” Harmon sat back. “Give me half an hour to get those warrants for you. It’ll probably take that long, if not a bit longer. What have you got on the Firestone homicide?”

“We have interviewed the crew members who had keys. I don’t get a murderous vibe from any of them but both Terry Hastings who is the second in command at the Holland Haunted House, and Chad Yancey who is the security tech confirmed the presence of the ‘big guy’ Marcus Langrove spoke of.” Chloe said. “We have even been able to find him a few times on the security footage. Dressed up as Lurch from the Addams Family and definitely focused on Luna, to the point of stalking her through the house - deliberately changing his path whenever she altered hers.”

“Sounds like a great guy,” Harmon commented. “Well, see what you can find out about him, Decker. It would be good if you can get this wrapped before the party on Halloween.”

“You know about that, sir?”

“Yes. My older son and daughter both go there. My younger son starts next year.” Lt Harmon looked at the photo of his three children on his desk and smiled. “Devin’s just at the age where he’s too cool to show he’s excited about Halloween but doesn’t want to miss out on the fun. Katie is in eighth grade and just wants to win her class’s costume competition and eat more candy than either of her brothers. Especially candy corn.”

“Candy corn, sir?”

“The kid loves that stuff. Can’t see the appeal in it myself, but she loves it. Her mother thinks it’s a shame she doesn’t like actual corn that much, or maybe she’d get more of her daily servings of vegetables in,” Harmon said, grinning. Chloe smiled back, knowing her Lieutenant adored his children. He reached for the phone on his desk. “Like I said, give me half and hour and those warrants should be nearly through. I’ll keep the arrest warrant priority, so as soon as you find anything, I’ll push on it.”

Chloe nodded and stood. It was the best she’d get, and she knew that Lt. Harmon would keep his word. “Thanks, Lieutenant.”

* * *

  
Chloe headed back into the conference room to find Lucifer hovering over Jack’s shoulder at the computer. Jack was furiously clicking on things with one hand and typing with the other. Ella was tapping on a touch-screen that had been brought in - the visual of what Jack was doing suddenly appeared on it. He had several stills from the security footage and was attempting to make them less dark and their suspect clearer. Seeing the computer screen now appear on the much bigger screen, Lucifer walked over and stood in front of it.

“Wait!” Jack’s fingers stopping typing and the mouse stopped clicking. “Can you zoom in there - on his right sleeve?” Lucifer indicated the area.

“What did you see?” Chloe and Ella both asked.

“I’m not 100% certain yet, let’s just see if the Irishman can bring it up better.” Jack resumed clicking and tapping keys. The section Lucifer had indicated suddenly zoomed in and, after a few seconds, cleared.

“Luckily they have good quality cameras or we wouldn’t be able to do this, given how dark it is,” Jack commented. Lucifer typed furiously into his phone and then waited as something loaded.

“Detective, Miss Lopez - are you seeing what I’m seeing?” Lucifer said, showing them the picture on his phone screen compared to the picture on the larger screen.

“Yeah. Is that a button?” Ella asked, taking Lucifer’s phone for a closer look. She handed it back to him after a few moments.

“You win the prize, Miss Lopez. Not only is it a button, but it is a very expensive, custom, etched metal button produced in France by one company and only two tailors in all of Los Angeles and its counties use the buttons as they are quite expensive. They aren’t a button used all that often on anything but wedding suits and that sort of thing because of their price.” Lucifer explained.

“Do you know which tailors?” Chloe asked, pretty sure she’d know the answer.

“Detective, really. Of course I do. One of them is my own tailor, and the other is quite good, if slightly lacking in material choices for Californian weather,” Lucifer demurred.

“Ok. We’ll swing by those places while I wait for the search warrant for Josiah Poole’s apartment. I’m also waiting on one to unseal his juvie records.” Chloe’s phone beeped.

Warrant for unsealing juvenile records of one Josiah Poole approved. Just waiting for the search warrant. Lt. H.

“Well, we can unseal those records now, so maybe let’s do that, then we can go,” Chloe said, continuing to read the message from her Lt. which gave her the approval numbers to unlock the file. Chloe walked over to where Jack sat. “Can you bring them up on screen? Here’s the authorisation.”

“Just a minute.” Jack opened the program which allowed law enforcement staff to view people’s criminal records and looked up Poole’s juvenile record. He put in the authorisation codes Chloe gave him, and the record appeared on screen. He tapped a few keys and sent it to the big screen.

Silence fell in the room as they all read the file. It listed just about every warning for serial killers, and most of the things found in people with certain antisocial disorders - animal cruelty, lack of impulse control, extreme lack of empathy, among others, as sited by the various psychiatrists who had interviewed him after he’d been caught ransacking an elderly neighbour’s house, having locked her in a cupboard after binding her hands and feet. He’d quite severely injured her little dog, who had tried to protect its master. He’d been sent to a mental rehabilitation facility at age 14 and had been cleared to leave the day before his 18th birthday. There was a further detailed letter from one of the psychiatrists at the facility - which stated that he had many of the signs of paranoid personality disorder, and antisocial personality disorder - who had warned against him being released, but Poole had done his time and left as a model patient. The doctor however was highly suspicious of this as he had seen Poole actively manipulate staff, patients and visitors during his stay.

“He’s a bucket full of sunshine,” Jack commented after a few minutes.

Ella flashed him a quick grin. “What I want to know is why didn’t anybody listen to this psychiatrist? Clearly he was onto something here.”

“Possibly lack of funding, who knows.” Chloe said. Her phone beeped again.

Search warrant granted. Go find something to nail this bastard with, Decker.

“Search warrant is in. Let’s go Lucifer,” Chloe said, heading towards the conference room door. “Great job, everyone. Let’s nail both these guys.”

Chloe and Lucifer headed for Chloe’s vehicle.

“Can you put a call through to the Stevenses for me?” Chloe asked as she drove out of the parking garage.

“Certainly.” Lucifer dialled the number, and the call connected through the bluetooth system in Chloe’s car.

“Hello? This is Fletcher.” Fletcher’s voice came through the speakers.

“Hi Fletcher, this is Detective Decker. I was wondering if Joe Poole has anywhere he used to store things at your meetinghouse.”

“Oh, um, I’m not sure. There are lockers for people - especially since some of our members are homeless when they join us and we offer an outreach program where people in the area who are homeless or down on their luck can use our restroom facilities before or after they have a meal. He might have used one of those. I can ask our equipment manager - who gives out the keys for the lockers - if he knows.”

“That would be wonderful. I’ll call you back in an hour or so. We have a search warrant.”

“Honestly detective, you don’t need one. We’re happy to help the police in any way we can.” Fletcher said, sounding like he was walking somewhere.

“Thanks for your assistance. Bye.” Chloe pressed the button on her steering wheel to end the call. Glancing quickly at Lucifer, she said, “Let’s just hope we find something, either at Poole’s house or at the meetinghouse.”

The drive to Josiah Poole’s house wasn’t all that far, but the afternoon traffic was slow-moving, heavy and antsy. Suddenly Lucifer’s phone rang and he pulled it out to answer. The caller ID showed ‘THE URCHIN’. Lucifer frowned and answered. “Beatrice?”

A stream of flustered semi-coherent words hit Lucifer’s ears. Sighing, he waited for Trixie to finish her tirade, then said. “I might speak every language in the world, but even I can’t understand when you speak that fast. Slow down, and just give me the salient points.”

Chloe could hear her daughter audibly breathe out slowly, then her voice, still muffled, speak much slower. “So you require transportation home from school? Alright, let me see what I can do, and I’ll get back to you.”

Trixie said something else and Lucifer just sighed. “It’s too late for that as she’s sitting next to me in her vehicle.” He ended the call. “As I’m sure you’ve guessed by now, Beatrice needs transportation home. Apparently her arrangements for after school fell through? Daniel is still busy with the junior officers. I can probably get Amenadiel to take her back to your apartment.”

Chloe calculated the distance from where they were to Trixie’s school, her apartment, then back to Poole’s apartment. She trusted that Amenadiel would ensure her daughter arrived home safely, and she knew that Trixie didn’t need a babysitter at her age. She nodded. “See if he can - if not, we’ll go get her.”

Lucifer closed his eyes, and a few minutes later spoke. “He’ll do it. I’ll inform the Urchin.”


	10. Witch Doctor

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Serial killer abode, dubious tailors and hidden things.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I haven't been super well lately so I'm sorry it's taken a little while to get this chapter up.
> 
> 26/Dec/20: Edited for grammar, spelling, missing bits, etc.

They pulled into the parking area of what turned out to be a dingy by-the-month flop house that looked like it hadn’t seen a coat of paint since before Chloe was born. Chloe didn’t consider herself a snob, but the flop house rated almost nothing on her scale. It screamed ‘do illegals things here’ and no-one will care or likely notice. If she’d been a location scout, it’s exactly where she’d put someone doing a nefarious deed because the whole place just carried that air about it.

“Bad Guys R Us?” Lucifer commented quietly, his thoughts obviously heading in a similar direction to hers.

“Seems like it,” she replied, watching as two young men whose demeanours read ‘gangster wannabe’ in neon lights made a drug deal in a less-than shadowy corner. “Could those two be any more obvious? I should arrest them for sheer stupidity, but I’m busy so they’re getting a reprieve they don’t know about today.” Chloe walked towards the reception.

“Detective, you minx!” Lucifer said, following quickly behind her.

Chloe badged the clerk on the reception desk. Something about the look on her face made him decide not to dick around and just hand over whatever or whoever she wanted. “Unit 13. Who’s booked in there?”

“Ah, l-lemme just check on that for ya.” The clerk, a weasely, but otherwise nondescript man flicked through the pages of a yellowed diary, listing names, rent amounts and whether they’d paid. “Ah, i-it’s registered to Mr. Judas Priest.”

Chloe flicked a glance at the page - indeed unit 13, which was on Poole’s paperwork, had the name Judas Priest beside it. She slapped a photo in front of the clerk. “Does he look like this?”

The clerk made sure to take a good look at the picture - the cop babe was mighty pissed off - and nodded. “Yeah, sure, that’s him. Kinda weird guy - also seems like he might be a bit of a religious nutter. But hey, his money is as good as anybody else’s - pays rent on time, in cash too.”

“Is he here currently?” Chloe cut the clerk off before he could babble.

“Nope - left about 10 minutes ago. Had his duffle bag with him, so I figured he was off to bowling practice.”

“Bowling practice?” Chloe stared at the clerk like he’d suddenly sprouted an extra head.

“Yeah. Couple’a nights a week, he packs his duffle and heads off to bowling. Or at least that’s where he says he’s going.” The clerk’s head bobbed up and down like an apple in a bucket. “Asked him about it one time a few weeks back - he was going when I was leaving, which is more usual. Said he was going bowling with some friends. He didn’t say where though.” The clerk added, trying to remember as much of the brief conversation as possible. Chloe blew a breath out her nose and looked at the clerk.

“We have a warrant to search the unit. Stay here until I get back. If he comes back, stall him from entering his place, or call my cell.” Chloe slipped out one of her cards and handed it to the clerk. Signalling Lucifer to follow her, she headed towards the unit Poole rented. Stopping out the front of 13, she nodded at Lucifer. He stepped forward, and with a sharp jerk of his wrist, opened the door.

Poole’s living space was small and sparse - the furniture consisted of one wooden bar stool standing tucked under the kitchen bench, a standing lamp and a small end table. A small, well-worn and not altogether comfortable looking armchair covered in what might once have been dark green suede sat in a corner, facing an ancient television that appeared to be more for decorative purposes than actual viewing. A cork board was on the wall beside a battered, equally ancient refrigerator. Doors lead off to what Chloe assumed was the bathroom and bedroom.

“Definite psycho-killer vibes from here,” Lucifer commented as he took in the room. “Where’s the stuff? Everyone has stuff or places to put stuff. This guy has none at all. There’s no dust, no missed crumbs, nothing.”

Chloe too surveyed the room. Lucifer was right - the room looked liked it hadn’t been lived in for a long time, but had also been visited by a rabidly obsessive cleaner who had gotten rid of every scrap of dust, dirt, cobwebs, etc. The cork board held two items, precisely placed into the top corners and nothing else. There was also a small, plain notepad sitting on the counter that appeared to have a grocery items list on it. Chloe stepped over to the corkboard and examined the two items it held. One was a Worshippers flyer, containing dates of their neighbourhood picnics/lunches - these had small ticks beside the ones that had already passed. The other was a business card for a second-hand electronics dealer. Chloe took photos of both items and sent them straight through to Ella. A few seconds later, her phone pinged.

Will grab my kit and head to the suspect’s apartment now. Lopez Out.

“Ella is on her way here. She needs to take these pieces of paper plus the notepad on the counter in case they contain anything important.” Chloe said. She opened one of the other doors to find a tiny bathroom consisting of a shower, toilet and sink, all crammed into the space.

“Bathroom.” she said, not bothering to close the door behind her. She wanted Poole to know she was onto him. Opening the other room, she revealed a sparsely furnished bedroom, although there were more personal items in the room than anywhere else. Chloe stepped into the bedroom and began to proceed further within when Lucifer’s voice halted her.

“Detective, look at this.” Lucifer was standing, looking directly into both rooms. Chloe came over.

“Look at what?” Chloe asked, looking about. Lucifer pulled her towards the other side of the apartment.

“Look between the doors,” Lucifer said, indicating the door between the bathroom and the bedroom. “Can you see it?”

“I’m not sure what I’m looking for,” Chloe said, cocking her head questioningly.

“Stay there, and I’ll show you.” Lucifer stepped into the bedroom and placed an arm on the wall that met the bathroom. “See this?” Lucifer indicated his arm.

“Yes, babe, but we haven’t got time for games right now.”

“As much fun as that would be, I promise there're no games,” Lucifer said, a grin sparking in his eyes. “Although, I’m sure we could set up a stake-out.”

Despite herself, Chloe laughed. “No. Continue.”

Lucifer left the bedroom and mirrored his position in the bathroom. “Do you see what I mean now, Detective?”

Chloe’s mind worked fast, and the cogs fell into place. “The room dimensions don’t fit. I shouldn’t be able to see your entire arm on both sides based on where the door sits.”

“I would say the bedroom has been modified - too much noise and shifting of plumbing and things to adjust the bathroom.” Lucifer said, meeting Chloe as she walked back towards the bedroom.

“We’d better get a saw and find out if Poole was authorised to make any changes to his rooms.” Chloe said, pulling out her phone.

* * *

  
“According to the super, Poole offered to redo one of the inner walls because it had been ‘affected by mould’ and needed replacing. He offered to do it in exchange for a major discount on the following month’s rent.” Chloe said, ending yet another phone call. She could happily have thrown out her phone right then.

Jack rapped his knuckles against the bedroom wall and listened. “Yep, definitely a hidden space behind there. How far away did Dan say he was?”

“He should be here in 5 minutes,” Chloe said. Dan, having gotten the rookie detectives back to the precinct, had handed them over to Lt. Harmon and headed to the crime scene, bringing a reciprocating saw with him to cut out the wall, since nobody had realised one would be required.

Ella, who busy snapping photos of the scene, hummed to herself. Lucifer, standing near her, raised an eyebrow and asked, “Really, ‘The Monster Mash’, Miss Lopez?”

Ella shrugged, slightly surprised that she’d been humming that particular tune, and said, “It’s Halloween. The monsters should be allowed to party if they want to.”

Lucifer smiled at her, and Ella was filled with a sense of comfort that she was able to elicit one of those rare genuine smiles from her friend. “Are you coming to LUX on Halloween Night?”

Ella gave Lucifer a gasp of mock outrage. “Of course, who do you take me for? Although, I admit, I don’t remember much of last year’s party. Sometime after the shots started my memory stopped.”

“I assure you, you were perfectly safe the entire night.” Lucifer’s tone was serious.

“I know, big guy. You got me covered,” Ella said. “Somos amigos.”

“De hecho nosotros somos,” Lucifer seconded. Heavy footsteps marked Dan’s arrival to the crime scene.

“Chloe? Lucifer? I brought the saw with me,” Dan said, opening the apartment door. Not a single dust mote rose to dance in the sunlight coming in the doorway around Dan.

“Oh great, in here Dan. In the bedroom,” Chloe said as she walked into the room. Dan followed Chloe, and Lucifer and Ella followed both of them.

Everyone stood staring at the wall for a moment. The dresser, bed and drawers had been pushed to one side by Lucifer, with Chloe’s go ahead, after Ella had taken photos of the scene. The wall stood, naked except for laser markings from a device being operated by Jack. There was a sense of anticipation, and almost dread, about what they would find.

“Just give the scanner one more minute,” Jack said, pressing a button and making the device ping softly. “It’s looking for traps, weaknesses and anything else that might be hidden before we just go cutting into the wall. Don’t want to set off a bobby trap and destroy evidence if he has set one.”

“That’s reasonable,” Chloe said. They waited a bit longer then the device pinged three times.

“Cut away, Detective,” Jack indicated the saw in Dan’s grip. “The scanner has left the dimensions of the hole for you so you can cut between the lines, so to speak.”

Dan motioned for everyone to leave the room and powered on the saw. A few minutes later, in a cloud of drywall dust, he emerged looking, to Lucifer’s eye, like a yeti. He refrained from stating this out loud though - Dan had come through with the saw and anything that got the case closer to being closed, the happier the Detective was and when the Detective was happy the Devil was happy. Instead, he handed Dan a bottle of water. “Here - you’ll probably need this after that.”

“Thanks man,” Dan said, grasping the bottle of water. “Damn dry wall dust gets everywhere.”

“Exactly my point earlier, Daniel.” Lucifer watched Dan’s face as he swallowed down the water. Dan’s forehead crinkled for a minute as he swallowed.

“What do you mean man?” Dan looked at Lucifer.

“You’re covered in drywall dust, Daniel. Yet this unit was so spotlessly clean there wasn’t a single dust mote when the Detective and I got here,” Lucifer explained. “So, where did the dust go? I mean, I have excellent cleaners at LUX who also clean my penthouse twice a week but even they can’t get rid of all the dust motes. Nobody should be able to. It’s part of ourselves, it’s our detritus.”

“You make a good point,” Dan said. It was more common than it used to be, but Dan actually agreed with Lucifer. Where was the dust and those sorts of things that make up a human life. “I’m going to shake off as much of this outside as I can. Back in a minute.”

Chloe came out as she heard the door closed. “Where’s Dan?”

“Just stepped out to shake the drywall dust off himself. He’ll be back in a second.” Lucifer said. “What did you find?”

“Come look for yourself.” Chloe said, heading back into the bedroom. Lucifer followed her into the bedroom. The large hole Dan had cut was like a gaping maw in the wall. Hidden behind the drywall was a reasonably-well constructed set of shelves. Candles, candle wax, wicks, candle moulds and other candle-making supplies were all sectioned out into the top shelf. The second shelf was dedicated to stones and rocks, some of which were carved into

“I believe those are runes, Detective.” Lucifer indicated the etchings. “At least some of them are. As in the Germanic language base. Some of these I don’t recognise - Amenadiel is better with reading languages, I just speak them.” He added the last bit as an aside to Chloe, who just nodded. Dan came back in then and also stood looking at the hole in the wall. A box full of white chalkboard chalk stood partially opened, several pieces missing. A glass mason jar stood holding others each with it’s own tag.

There was a shelf with red material, duct tape, electrocautery wands, books on the history of psychopaths, sinners and lots of notebooks. There was a blank space seeming to indicate where a laptop or tablet and modem had been going by the power and phone outlet that had also been walled up. There was, also, a space that appeared to have held some type of boxes going by the light grooves in the shelf surface.

“How many notebooks, Ella?” Chloe asked.

“Forty-one.” Ella replied, standing back to take more photos of the space.

“That’s one for every week this year, give or take a week.” Lucifer commented.

“Are you finished photographing the notebooks in the cupboard, Ella?” Chloe asked.

“Yep. I haven’t done them individually yet though so don’t mix them up,” Ella warned. Chloe handed gloves to both Lucifer and Dan, simply gave Lucifer a ‘don’t argue with me about this’ look and collected a stack of the notebooks. Lucifer just shook his head and put the gloves on, with a quick mutter under his breath. He took the next stack of notebooks and Dan, already gloved, took the last stack. Lucifer and Dan followed Chloe out into the main room, where she had begun to lay the notebooks out in order on the kitchen bench. The earliest one was dated the beginning of the year and they were dated weekly up until the week prior.

“You were right, man. One notebook for every week this year, except this week.” Dan said, once they’d placed the last notebook in order.

“Ella!” Chloe called the forensic tech over. “Did you want to take a couple of pictures of these in order so then Lucifer, Dan and I can take them back to the precinct and see if we can nail down this guy?”

“Two secs!” Ella called out, busily snapping away with her camera for a moment longer. She turned to Jack and said. “Get samples of everything in the cupboard.” She jogged out into the kitchen and saw the notebooks neatly laid out in order on the bench. “Aw, you guys did such a good job! And Lucifer, you’re wearing gloves!” Ella snapped a few pics then held out a hand. “Just don’t touch them for a second - I want to dust them for prints, then you’re good to go.” She gathered a few things from her bag which she’d placed near the front door.

* * *

Having divided tasks - Dan would take the notebooks and anything else relevant back to the precinct, along with Ella and Jack since there was so much stuff. Meanwhile, Chloe and Lucifer would call into the two men’s tailor’s shops for information, potentially, on their other suspect. Hopefully, by doing so, they’d end the day a lot closer to locking up two criminals.

“Detective... Chloe, let me drive,” Lucifer coaxed as she ground her teeth at the next set of traffic lights. A hole appeared in the traffic ahead and, putting her lights on, she moved into the emergency lane and pulled over. She unclipped her seatbelt and carefully opened the door - it was LA after all, a cop pulling over in traffic was just part and parcel of the day’s workings. She walked around to the passenger side of the car. Lucifer, long and rangy, looked particularly sexy at the moment and she really just wanted to kiss that cocky grin right off his face. She sighed, poked him in the belly with a finger instead, and got in the car. Lucifer walked around the car and got in the driver’s seat. He waited for a minute break in traffic and joined smoothly, weaving his way through to down-town LA much faster than she would have been able to - Lucifer seemed to be able to charm his way through anything. They pulled up out the front of a distinguished old building that screamed ‘look I am full of charm and sophistication’ rather than actually being either.

“Detective, this is _L’armadio_. Which translates, quite literally to ‘the wardrobe’ in Italian. Nicola Vignone is the proprietor. Bit of a snob, not as good at a leg in-seam as he claims to be, and has a tendency to use the cheapest version of things if he thinks he can sneak them past people. He’s never tried it on me, Dad knows why,” Lucifer said, a brief fiery flash passing over his eyes.

“So, this guy’s not your tailor then?” Chloe asked.

“Precisely. I’d have gone to _Ludovici’s_ first, but _L’armadio_ is closer to where we were. I know, however, Nicola won’t try to fob you off if you have me in tow.” He smiled, showing all teeth, a bit like a shark. They got out of the car and approached _L’amardio_. Chloe went in first, with Lucifer one step behind her.

The word extravagant didn’t begin to cover the inside of the store. Chloe had spent years investigating crimes in LA and had seen the extremes that wealth could go. The owner of _L’armadio_ seemed to have tried to check every box, and the end result was a bit overwhelming. There was marble, stucco, gilt and murals colliding with high-backed wing chairs, leather and oddly the smell of Christmas trees. There were two clerks, both busy with customers. Chloe spotted movement from the room behind the counter and animated voices in what she assumed was Italian. A moment later a short, well-mustachioed man with more hair product in his hair than even Lucifer, appeared from behind the curtain. The person on the other end of the phone-call was abruptly cut off with a “Ciao!” upon seeing Lucifer standing protectively near Chloe.

“Ah, Mr. Morningstar! Who is this lovely lady? Nicola Vignone, proprietor,” Nicola smarmed his way over to them.

Chloe pulled out her badge. “Detective Chloe Decker, LAPD.”

“Ah, this is not a social call then?” Nicola’s shoulders quivered, like they were waiting to express his relief that ‘Mr. Morningstar’ didn’t require his actual services.

“No, it’s not. I need to know if you recognise these buttons?” Chloe said, giving Nicola a picture of the buttons from the suspect’s suit. Nicola’s shoulders sagged in what was evidently relief. Nicola pulled out a small magnifying lens and examined the photos carefully, well aware of the Devil’s proximity to him. Nicola Vignone had a lot of sins, and a lot of guilt, all of which he tried to cover with extra coats of sweaty charm. “Yes - I recognise these. Well, not these specifically, but certainly I have used that manufacturer on special orders.”

“But no-one has ordered anything with that specific button?” Chloe pressed, sensing some of the lingering guilt Nicola was suppressing.

“Not through me. You can check our orders if you like, Detective,” Nicola said. One of the clerks had finished with their client and was hovering behind the counter. “Sebastian - bring up our order list for ‘ _Le Pointe De Menton_ ’ Paris.” Sebastian worked the computer and Chloe was soon handed a list of orders. Nothing matched the button listed, and the records went back several years.

“Well, thank you for your help, Mr. Vignone,” Chloe said. She turned to leave and Lucifer followed her. They both stepped out into the bright Autumn afternoon. Chloe didn’t say anything until they were both back in the car, Lucifer behind the wheel again.

“I’ve never wanted to leave a store more in my life - also Nicola is terrified of you,” she observed.

“As well, he should - I gave him the boost to start his business, if he screws me over, I can mess up his comfy little life of wife and children and mistresses,” Lucifer explained. “He does love a good yacht as well as Ferraris. Status symbols.” He made his way to a more boutique area of down-town. After a few more minutes Lucifer parked out the front of a building that had at one time been a private home and was now a discrete and expensive clothing boutique. A small wooden sign announced _Ludovici’s_ out the front with a whisper of exclusivity and prestige that was definitely missing from _L’armadio_.

“So what is there to know about this place?” Chloe asked, turning to face her partner.

“Fourth generation Italian family-owned business. Been operating from this building since the beginning. Started by brothers Cassiano and Teodoro Ferrante. Named for their maternal grandfather, who taught them the tailoring craft. Currently run by Carlo Ferrante, Cassiano’s great, great grandson. Excellent attention to detail, never met a suit they couldn’t alter. First-class customer service, discrete when required. You like their clothes - this is usually where I get anything I buy you from.”

“Okay, good to know. And you like these people?” Chloe smiled at her Devil.

“Definitely no serial killers or otherwise here, Detective,” Lucifer replied with a grin.

“Alright. Let’s go get some bespoke information on a criminal.” Chloe got out of the car and met gazes with Lucifer over the roof of the car. “See what I did there?”

“Indeed.”


	11. Ding Dong The Witch Is Dead.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Closer and closer we get to closing our cases and the big party day! I've been listening to your pleas, I promise. :D

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 26/Dec/20: Edited or spelling grammar and minor inaccuracies.

The inside of _Ludovici’s_ was a startling contrast in comparison to _L’armadio_. Walls painted in a soft dove grey complemented the sense of sophistication and class of the polished floor-boards and an enormous but somehow unpretentious stone fire place adorned with flowers, candles and statuettes of horses and mythological beings. Rather than benches or armchairs, low backed couches and chaises were arranged strategically throughout the main shop floor, allowing for conversations and a relaxed feel. A pretty, fresh-faced young woman with curly brown hair pinned back from her face approached them.

“Buon pomeriggio. My name is Sara - how can I help you today?” she asked, her riotously curly hair trying to escape its pins with the smallest movement of her head.

Chloe showed Sara her badge discretely. “I’m Detective Chloe Decker, this is my partner, Lucifer Morningstar. I need to speak with your manager about a current investigation.”

Sara, a member of the Ferrante family, nodded. “Okay, Detective. Let me just go find Uncle Carlo. Just take a seat over there whilst I do so.”

They watched as Sara agilely moved her way through the main area, clearly comfortable in her surroundings, and disappeared out the back. A few moments later, Sara re-appeared, followed by a dark-haired man in a well-cut steel-grey suit. He came over after Sara gestured to them.

“Detective, Mr. Morningstar,” Carlo Ferrante held out a hand for Chloe’s and then Lucifer’s. “Detective, I’m Carlo Ferrante, the manager here. Sara tells me you need my help with a case, so please, tell me what I can do for you?” Carlo sat on a nearby chaise, gesturing to the couch opposite to invite Chloe and Lucifer to sit as well.

Chloe pulled the picture taken from the crime scene video out of her bag. She passed them to Carlos. “Do you recognise these Carlo?”

Carlo took the photos and examined them carefully. “Well, I can tell you ‘ _Le Pointe De Menton_ ’ - a very exclusive button manufacturer in Paris made them. I use their work on some custom designs, as does the owner of _L’armadio_ , Nicola Vignone. I’m not sure if I’ve seen this design or not. Something seems familiar - I don’t do all our custom work, we have three other men’s tailors here. I can send them each out to speak with you if you like. I will also go through our order files for _Le Pointe_ to see if anything comes up. Do you have any other photos of the garment or potentially the height of the person wearing the jacket?”

“We should be able to get height and weight, and least roughly from the footage we have,” Chloe said. She pulled out her phone and sent a message to Ella.

_Can you or Jack get approx measurements of our copy-cat off the security-cam footage? Need ASAP if possible._

The replying dots danced on Chloe’s screen.

_J says 10 mins. Just resetting in lab._

“We can get you measurements in about 10 minutes,” Chloe said, looking back up at Carlo.

“Well, Detective, Lucifer, please make yourselves comfortable - I will get the files up that deal with _Le Pointe_ , and I’ll send out Jacques to speak with you first.” Carlo stood and winced slightly as his knee creaked as it went straight. “I’ll come back once I’ve gotten the files up.” He stood and walked towards the back of the store again - stopping to speak with an older gentleman for several moments. As he headed out the back, he held the door open for someone to come through. Sara walked back through, carrying a tray with two large mugs of the family’s favoured blend of coffee and a plate of pretty Halloween-themed sugar cookies and biscotti. She carried the tray over to where Chloe and Lucifer sat and placed it on one of the low coffee-table style tables.

“A large espresso for you, Mr Morningstar. And for you, Detective, a large non-fat almond milk latte. We didn’t have any sugar-free caramel, so there’s a little real caramel there to drizzle in if you want it. Nonna said to enjoy these,” Sara said, pulling pretty flower-patterned paper napkins from her pocket. “She orders these from a couple of great Italian bakeries.”

Chloe picked up the coffee and sniffed deeply. “How do you know how I like my coffee?”

“I’m a Ferrante, Detective, we’re born into it,” Sara replied with a wink. “Here comes Jacques - I’d better get him his tea.” She hurried off out the back. Jacques was a thin reedy man who seemed to have no outstanding features until you saw his eyes, which were a piercing green. He sniffed haughtily when presented with the photo of the button. Pulling a pince-nez from his shirt pocket, he held the photo up to the light and almost glowered at it.

“I’m afraid I don’t recognise the button, Detective. Of course, I would never allow a gentleman to put such a thing on anything I tailored for him, for it is hideous and would reflect poorly on me should somebody work out I had tailored the gentleman’s outfit.” Jacques, who was mostly all hot air, heaved a dramatic sigh. Sara came hurrying back, a delicate china teacup and saucer in her hands.

“Jacques, here’s your tea, darling,” she said, carefully handing the teacup to the dramatic Frenchman.

“Ah, Sara, you are a darling.” Jacques took a sip of tea and almost purred like a cat. Taking another sip, he examined the photo again. “I can definitely confirm it’s a _Le Pointe_ button. You can see the tiny, almost microscopic maker’s sign they put on every button in the detailing.” Jacques tapped a section of the photo. “You’d miss it if you didn’t know to look for it. See - LPM stamped inside a circle. I’m afraid I can’t help you any more than that.” He took another sip of tea and rose. “Good luck to you, Detective.” They watched him scurry back to the outer areas of the store. Chloe’s phone buzzed.

_Here are the measurements from the video:_

_Suspect is 208.28 cm or 6’.83” ft tall and weighs 361 lbs or 163.747 kg._

_From there I was able to run a program to give some basic tailoring measurements that gave me these measurements as well. Chest: 53in, Waist: 42in, Hips: 52in, In Seam: 40in._

_Hope this is what you need. Jack._

Carlo made his way back to Chloe and Lucifer, a sheaf of printed papers and an iPad in his hands. “Detective, I have the list of every order with something from _Le Pointe_ for the last eighteen months here.”

“Okay - the lab just got back to me with measurements. Here they are,” Chloe said, showing Carlo her phone screen. He tapped on the iPad screen and brought up a screen that allowed him to search the records of customers based on measurements and tapped in the numbers from Chloe’s phone.

“We’ve got three customers that fit the height and rough weight measurement. None match those measurements exactly, but it’s hard from a photo or video to get exact measurements. Two of those have ordered designs with buttons from Le Petite but none with the exact button you’ve shown. Of course - it could be a custom add-on. Something a customer brought in to have added on.”

Just then a young man with the same features as Carlo came out from the back area and made his way over to them.

* * *

“This is my son, Matteo.” Carlo introduced the younger man, who was about 20 judging by his features, Chloe thought.

“Hello Detective, Mr. Morningstar. Papa was telling me you were wondering about one of our clients, maybe.” Matteo said, an air of naivety about him. “I can’t imagine any of our customers doing such bad things, but I’m happy to help in any way I can.”

“Matteo - do you know anyone who has ordered something with this button or who has these measurement sizes?” Carlo asked his son, showing hi the measurements on the iPad and the picture Chloe had shown him. Matteo leaned forward and carefully examined the button picture.

“Sure - that’s Mr Matthew.” When his father looked at him puzzled, Matteo continued. “From the charity project, Papa.”

Carlo let out a sigh. “I’m sorry, Detective, I didn’t even think of it. We did some work for a non-profit charity that provides good suits to men who come from underprivileged circumstances - such as poor homes, just out of jail, etc. to give them something nice for interviews, work, etc. I didn’t even think about that work. We used supplies from a number of our suppliers - they sent us odds and ends in terms of buttons, ties, pocket squares, etc to add to what we had put aside.”

“Do you have any contact details for this Matthew?” Chloe asked. Carlo looked at his son, who now looked somewhat scared.

“Matteo - you need to tell Detective Decker everything you know, okay. It’s very important.”

“Okay, Papa - but won’t Mr Matthew get into trouble because of me?”

Chloe looked at Matteo. “No. If he gets into trouble, it’s because of something he did. It’s not your fault. If he didn’t do anything wrong, this will take him off the list.”

This seemed to make Matteo more resolute. “Okay then. I’ll tell you everything I know.”

Matteo proceeded to give them chapter and verse about one Matthew Tinker. Afterwards, Carlo sent Matteo off for a break and rubbed his forehead. “I’m sorry about that. Matteo is a bit naïve - and he probably likes this Matthew because they have much the same name. In any case, I hope this information helps you.”

Chloe stood. “Matteo was a lot of help actually, Carlo. Don’t worry about it.”

“If you’re sure, Detective.” Carlo also stood, the sense of worry clear about him.

Lucifer put his hand on Carlo’s shoulder. “If the Detective says not to worry about it, then you should do what she says.”

Carlo walked them out of the store and was grateful when Sara brought him a latte.

Chloe and Lucifer sat in Chloe’s car while she called through a BOLO and warrant for Matthew Tinker’s arrest. She wasn’t sure where he’d be, and the one thing Matteo hadn’t been able to give them was an address.

“Well, it seems we’re making progress, Detective,” Lucifer said. “You know who both your killers are now, it’s just a matter of hunting them down and catching the pair of them, then you’ll be wrapped up for Trixie’s party.”

Chloe nodded in agreement. “It certainly looks like its heading that way. We’d better head back to the station now, see what progress the others have made.”

45 minutes later they arrived in the parking structure of the LAPD. Chloe was feeling good after the jolt of coffee and the extremely tasty cookies and biscotti at the tailor shop. She needed to check on something related to her costume for the LUX party and didn’t want Lucifer to overhear her, so she slipped into the ladies' room. Pulling out her phone, she dialled the number she wanted, and it was quickly answered.

“Hey, it’s Chloe Decker here. Did it arrive? Oh great, it did. No, it’s okay - I’ll pick it up when I’m doing the paperwork. He’ll leave when that starts, as per usual. Probably tomorrow afternoon. Okay. I’d better go. Thanks again.” Chloe finished her phone call, used the bathroom for its proper purpose, then washed her hands and left. Lucifer was hovering near the vending machine.

“Are you actually hungry, or are you just trying to work out the best way to play this one?” Chloe asked him, wanted desperately to just snuggle into his warmth and stay there, but knowing she needed to hold off until end of shift.

“Oh, well. It’s out of Doritos but I may be inclined towards the flaming hot Cheetos. Did you want something?” Lucifer said, tilting his head.

“No thanks. Those cookies and biscotti at _Ludovici’s_ were plenty. Let’s get back to the others,” Chloe said, tugging him along with her as she headed towards the conference room.

As they walked into the room, Dan was arranging several new printouts on the white boards. He looked over as Chloe and Lucifer entered the room. “Hey - what did you find out?”

“We found Matthew Tinker - he’s our copy-cat.” Chloe explained their searches at both tailoring stores. Ella came in halfway through and listened attentively.

“Well, high-five Team Good!” she said. “I’ve got the comparisons for most of the crime scene components here - everything from the filled-in wall spaces matches what we’ve found at the Janie Petersen, Henry Morgan, and Thomas Himi crime scenes. There’s chalk here with their names on it and the names of several others - some we’ve already returned as matches from missing persons cases.”

“So we’ll be able to close more cases once we’ve got him - he has mentioned names in these notebooks. It would be interesting to track his previous locations to see whether there are more of these left behind.” Dan said. “I’ve pinned anything that seems important to the whiteboard. I’ve also looked into whether Poole hired cleaning equipment. Turns out he has - on two separate occasions. The first coincides with when he first move into the unit. The second was a week ago.” Dan paced copies of receipts on the table and Chloe took a closer look at them.

“This is the same place that is from the advertisement on his cork board,” she said, scanning the receipts.

“Yeah - although I gotta give Lucifer credit for the idea. He mentioned wondering where all the dirt had gone and about his cleaning crew for LUX. I figured Poole might not have enough cash to hire a cleaning crew, but some decent second-hand cleaning equipment shouldn’t set him back too much or hiring it even.” Dan explained, nodding towards Lucifer’s tall frame. “So that’s what spurned on the idea.”

Chloe nodded and looked at the people in the room with her. “We’ve done really well so far. We’ve just got to catch Matthew Tinker and Josiah Poole, then we can wrap these cases up and be done with them, for now at least.”

Just then Lucifer’s phone rang - _Flight of the Bumblebee_ rang out across the room and he hastened to answer it. Chloe knew that song was associated with the staff number at LUX, so she wasn’t surprised to hear him sigh in exasperation as he walked out of the conference room.

“For the sake of all things Hellish, Lawrence. Just handle it in whatever manner you see fit. It’s why you get paid. Put Patrick on.” Lucifer commanded. The bartender picked up the phone and whatever he said seemed to un-ruffle some of Lucifer’s feather. “Cooler heads had best prevail Patrick. Just cut them off and kick them out - it’s not even 6pm.” He hung up then and walked back into the conference room.

“Apologies everyone.” He said, walking over to lean against the window. Chloe looked at him and he shook his head, indicating he’d talk to her about it later if it came up.

* * *

The BOLO on Matthew Tinker turned out to be well worth the paperwork it would generate. About an hour after Lucifer’s phone call from the LUX staff, he, Chloe and Dan were on their way to Tinker’s last known location. A couple of officers on their dinner break who had heard the BOLO just before they stopped at a burger shop spotted him and called it in. They were still there, watching him, waiting to see if he left. The store’s staff had not been told, so they just served him as usual. 

Lucifer was driving, having picked Chloe’s car keys out of her pocket on their way down to the parking garage. He felt no desire to stick to the speed limits considering they were on the hunt for one of their bad guys, and it would just be a nuisance if he were to get away from them. He slowed just before they arrived at the burger store, both the Detectives getting out before he’d finished parking. Dan and Chloe headed towards the interior of the burger store, Chloe going around the front, Dan heading around the back, in case Tinker decided to flee that way. Lucifer followed closely behind Chloe, their rhythm with each other smooth and steady after years of having done the same thing. 

“Do we need a distraction?” Lucifer whispered as they headed through the door. 

“Hopefully not. I’ll let you know if we do,” Chloe replied softly, locating Matthew Tinker, facing towards the back of the store, his back towards her. Dan had begun to clear the store staff out of the kitchen as Tinker was occupied watching what appeared to be an MMA match on a laptop. 

With Lucifer hovering nearby in case his celestial strength was required, Chloe approached from behind Tinker and with her badge clearly on display spoke to him. “Matthew Tinker, you’re under arrest for suspicion of murder in the death of Luna Firestone.” 

Tinker sat meekly while Chloe cuffed him and read him his rights. She called for uniformed officers to escort him back to the station. Her phone rang, and she answered. 

“Yes, Lieutenant. I’ve called for uniforms to escort Matthew Tinker back to the station.” Chloe wandered through the burger place, listening to her Lieutenant. “Okay - sure, Lucifer and I can go there now. Dan is here so he can wait for the uniforms, then meet up with us.” She listened again, then ended the conversation. 

Tinker was being guarded by the two cops who had come into eat their dinner, so Chloe headed out into the kitchen to tell Dan she was leaving at the request of their boss. He nodded and waved for her to go. She signalled to Lucifer, who met her at the car a few minutes later, carrying a takeout drink tray and bag. She looked at the food and just shook her head. Her Devil would always take an opportunity to eat - his metabolism seemed to require it. 

“Well, it seemed rude not to use the services provided,” Lucifer said, with a careless shrug. Besides, he knew his Detective and if he offered something reasonably healthy, she would eat. Also he knew she had a weakness for fries, and he would use it against her if necessary. He pulled a carton of fries out and popped several into his mouth. Chloe, the scent of salt and oils from the fries calling to her like a siren, scowled and grabbed several for herself. 

She drove to the address Lt. Harmon had given her. It was a storage facility that held mostly small shed and shipping containers in a large yard with a fence topped with barbed wire. There were no frills, no security guard and only a couple of cameras, all of which faced sheds or containers, and only those who had paid the premium for that luxury. 

“Joe Poole’s car was traced to this facility and has shown up on a few of the security camera’s feeds over the past several weeks. We think maybe he’s holed up here in the shed or container he’s hired,” Chloe said, killing her headlights as she pulled up in front of the storage facility. They were now on stake-out, at least for a bit. She forked up a mouthful of the spicy beef salad bowl Lucifer had ordered for her. “Mmm, this is really good.”

Lucifer, who had already devoured his burger and fries, nodded and watched the storage facility. He’d paid for the meals for the two officers who had found Tinker and ordered meals for Ella, Jack and Dan. He knew that Dan would ensure Ella and Jack’s meals got to them, and that he’d appreciate his own meal being paid for. About 15 minutes later, Dan approached on foot, having parked a short distance away. Having too many cars out the front would draw too much suspicion. He got in the backseat of Chloe’s car and closed the door quietly. 

“Hey man - thanks for dinner. Ella and Jack said thanks also,” he said. Despite their differences over the time, Dan knew Lucifer was trying to be as friendly as possible, and he was trying to remain friendly back. Now and then the knowledge of who Lucifer truly was threatened to squash his sanity, but those times were less and less now. 

“Everybody requires nourishment,” Lucifer said in response. Chloe smiled to herself - she knew Lucifer was pleased that his efforts were appreciated, but also realised how difficult it was for both men to accept the roles they played in each other’s lives. She knew how much the revelation of Lucifer’s true personality had shaken Dan, and she also knew how much that had saddened Lucifer, even if he didn’t necessarily want to be saddened by that. She was glad they had been able to come to this truce between them. Perhaps they’d never be bracelet bros again, but at least Dan didn’t actively run from the room when Lucifer appeared any more.

“What’s that?” Lucifer said suddenly, shifting in his seat to allow more of his face to be hidden in shadow. His celestial eyesight had picked up something well before Chloe and Dan could, but by now they both knew to trust his sight and shadowed themselves as well. Soon after, a man walked across the street about two car lengths away from where they were parked and headed into the storage facility. His profile and the big black duffle bag matched the description of Joe Poole. 

“I think that’s our guy,” Chloe said softly, watching him disappear behind the gates. 

“Let’s go then,” Dan said, ready to get out of the car. Chloe nodded, and they all got out of her vehicle, heading towards the entrance of the storage facility.


	12. (You're The) Devil In Disguise

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We begin to wrap the cases, and a disgruntled Lucifer finds LUX is having a bit of a cursed night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Second to last case-related chapter. The last few pieces will come together in the next chapter then it's party time. Thanks for bearing with me. :) I really do appreciate every single comment and kudos received.
> 
> Big thanks to Hiro, Miri and Wollfgang for their suggestions for LUX’s cursed night. ;)
> 
> 26/Dec/20: Edited for grammar, spelling and other discrepancies.

Joe Poole whistled tunelessly as he walked along the rows of storage sheds and shipping containers. His only regret had been that he’d needed to change locations with less preparation than he would have liked - he realised he’d stayed at his previous location too long. He really should have left the month before, but it had been so convenient. It didn’t matter though. He had everything he needed - as a matter of fact he’d just stocked up on supplies - fuel for his portable stove, more tins of baked beans, soups and stews. He’d also just replenished his supply of milk, eggs and fresh bread. These he’d put in the small solar-battery powered refrigerator he kept in his storage shed as well. He took advantage of the gym facilities provided by the Stevens’ at their house of worship. 

He arrived at his storage shed, still unaware he’d been surreptitiously followed to his destination. He unlocked his shed, and took a quick look on either side, then opened the door and stepped inside. He switched the small headlamp torch he wore on and lit up a path in front of him until he closed the door and locked it again. Then he walked over and turned on the small lamp beside the cot he’d made for himself. He put his supplies away tidily, which was one thing he did appreciate his mother teaching him. Then he sat down on his cot and took out the current week’s notebook and began to write the evening’s entry.

Chloe, Dan and Lucifer watched Poole enter the storage shed from between two large shipping containers that gave them a good view of Poole, but obstructed his view of them. 

“So what do you want to do?” Dan whisper-asked Chloe.

“Catch him,” she whispered back. “Lucifer, you can unlock the door, can’t you?”

“Detective, really. Of course I can,” he whispered, slightly offended that she would even have to ask.

“Okay - let’s got. Slowly and no talking,” she said, taking her gun from its holster and checking it was loaded and ready. Dan did the same and then the three of them walked quietly towards Poole’s shed, slowing down as they approached. Lucifer pointed to the grass beside the pathway and Chloe nodded, so they all walked in the grass, making even less sound. Once they reached the door of the storage shed, Chloe and Dan took positions and Lucifer stood to one side. He twisted the doorknob with one short, sharp yank and the door flew open, crashing against the inner wall of the storage shed as Chloe and Dan burst inside. Lucifer, knowing his role, filled the doorway, a mocking smile on his face. 

“Josiah Poole - put your hands up and step away from the bed,” Dan said, since Poole still stood there, mouth moving like a koi fish. A moment later he sprang towards the doorway where Lucifer simply grabbed him by the shirt collar and hauled him into the air. 

“I believe the Detective asked you to move away from the bed, not flee the scene,” he said, giving Poole a bit of a shake. He allowed Poole’s feet to touch the ground, but didn’t let go of the man’s collar. Dan walked over and quickly cuffed Poole’s hands behind his back and read him his rights. 

“Thanks for the assist,” he said quietly to Lucifer, who just nodded. A pair of uniformed officers who had been called just before they began to follow Poole arrived at the scene to lead Poole off to a waiting squad car and his ride to the precinct before going to the county jail cells overnight. Chloe walked over to Dan and Lucifer as they watched Poole being led away.

“Well, let’s get back and get both these guys interviewed so we can do the paperwork and go home,” Chloe said, feeling exhausted but pleased. 

Lucifer’s phone rang again, with the same tone as before. Wordlessly he stepped away from the two detectives and answered the phone with a rather snappish “Yes?”

He listened, and Chloe watched him pace. 

“Listen - I can go back to the precinct to start the paperwork on Tinker and Poole,” Dan said, also following Lucifer’s progress back and forth in front of the storage shed. “You can interview these guys tomorrow - they’re not going anywhere. Plus, your shift ends in about 10 minutes. Take Lucifer to LUX and let him sort out whatever is going on, and call it a night. I’ll meet you both at the station tomorrow morning and we’ll nail them.”

"Thanks Dan.” Chloe sighed in relief and Dan walked off to direct the crime scene team. They would need to photograph and take samples from the storage shed and Poole’s car as well. Chloe watched as Lucifer ended his phone call and looked like he wanted to hurl his phone as far as he could, but put it carefully into his suit jacket pocket. She walked over to him and, in the shadows of the storage sheds, wrapped an arm around his waist. 

“Hey, good news - we can go. Dan will stay here and direct the crime scene team, then go process Poole and Tinker into the system. We’ll meet up in the morning to interview them both,” Chloe told him, gently guiding him back towards her car. “Let’s get you back to LUX so you can sort out whatever is happening there.”

Lucifer rubbed the bridge of his nose in a rare show of frustration. “Too many things, all at once, Detective.”

“Well, I’m sure we can sort it out together. You helped me with my cases, so I’ll help you with your work problems.” Chloe opened the door of her car and got into the driver’s seat. Lucifer got into the passenger seat and looked just deflated enough that Chloe leaned over and kissed his cheek. “Hey, you’re the Devil. You’re a sexy, intelligent nightclub owner, with a kick-ass Detective for a girlfriend. We’ll fix whatever the problems are at LUX and get everything back on an even keel.”

“I certainly hope so. But yes, I do have a kick-arse Detective for a girlfriend, don’t I?” Lucifer said, smiling at his Detective. She kept a calm head in difficult situations, and that was all he needed.

* * *

“Patrick - explain this mess. Or find me someone who can,” Lucifer demanded of his head bartender. Patrick signalled to one of the servers who came over to the bar. He quickly poured a whiskey for his boss and placed it in front of Lucifer, deciding that the story would go better with the liberal application of alcoholic lubrication.

“Okay - so some idiot broke a couple of barstools when we cut him off. Dimitri picked him up and escorted him from the building. That was after Lawrence’s phone call.” Patrick shook his head. Lawrence would get his ass kicked later - Patrick hadn’t had time to read him the riot act for harassing the boss with a nuisance phone call. “Then we found out that Ricky, the alcohol distributor, got jumped between jobs and didn’t get to deliver our beer kegs and the rest of our alcohol order so we’re under stocked. The registers have decided to malfunction - we can’t calculate change. We couldn’t get the safe open - the mechanism appears to be broken so we’re also operating on minimum change.”

“The dancers and waitresses are being harassed by a bunch of frat boys who seem to keep popping up. It doesn’t matter how many times Dimitri, Lawrence or the others roust them, they just keep on coming or get replaced.” The pretty blonde server scowled at a rowdy group of young men in one corner. She added with a sigh. “Also, there appears to be a problem with one toilet in the ladies' bathroom.”

Lucifer downed the whiskey in one go. Chloe placed a hand on Lucifer’s arm, patted her badge with the other hand and said, “I’ll deal with the frat boys. Then check the ladies' room. You open the safe. Patrick, surely the staff can use calculators or their phones for working out change?”

Patrick nodded and patted his pocket. “Some of us have been doing so. It’s still taking a while though, and some people aren’t taking that well.”

“Patrick, anyone who waits patiently gets a free drink. Just one, I’m not operating a charity, but they can get one on the house,” Lucifer said. “Lexie, you take the Detective over to the frat boys. If they don’t behave for her, I’ll go over.” He headed towards the back area of LUX whilst Chloe followed Lexie across the room.

“You can just point out the table to me from here, Lexie,” Chloe said as they got closer.

“Oh good. It’s that big corner booth at the back. They’ve done nothing but eat, drink and paw at the dancers and servers. They’ve probably harassed other customers as well.” Lexie headed back into the throng of customers. Chloe approached the table full of young men and put on her best Hollywood smile.

“Hi there fellas,” she said, flashing teeth and fluffing her hair. The young men's attention immediately turned to her. “I heard you guys have been here a while,” she continued.

“Yeah! Bucky finally turned 21 so we’ve been celebrating!” One man nearest her slurped down of his drink and smiled in a way Chloe assumed was supposed to be salacious but was mostly just sloppy.

“Well, that’s awesome. But guess what!” Chloe pulled out her badge and ID. “You don’t get to harass the staff here, or anywhere else for that matter. You’re all going to leave now or I‘ll arrest all of you for public nuisance, drunk and disorderly, and anything else I can think of.”

“What?” Several of the young men let out protests. Dimitri - an enormous man built like two line-backers, had realised what Chloe was doing and had signalled to two of the other bouncers and came over to back her up. The young men, seeing three much larger men backing up the petite blonde police detective, broke off their protests and allowed themselves to be escorted from the premises. Satisfied with having completed that task, Chloe headed to the ladies' room to try to sort out the issue in there.

Lucifer walked into the back rooms of LUX and stared balefully at the safe. Clearly his staff had tried the usual process, and the safe had refused to open, so they had attempted the secondary override which had only partially worked, and left the safe open enough to see it was open, but unable to be opened enough to access the inside. This was something he should be able to handle, with some celestial strength. He walked over to the safe and grasped the handle. He keyed in the code for the safe - 874943 - and it whined, chugged and whirred painfully.

Rolling his eyes, Lucifer smacked the side of the safe, which made a decidedly unhappy sound and rocked slightly. Grasping the handle firmly, he spun it until he heard the tumblers click as they disengaged. He then pulled the door, increasing his strength until the metal began to groan. Finally, after a bit of finessing and having relieved some of his frustration, the safe door popped open. It certainly wasn’t going to close again - he’d have to order a new safe and get it installed ASAP, but at least now his staff would be able to use as much change as they needed. He found a couple of bank deposit bags and filled them with cash and coins and took them out to the bar where he shoved them under the counter.

Patrick placed another glass of whiskey in front of him between serving customers, and Lucifer toasted him with it. He saw Chloe make her way over to the bar, looking perplexed. “Problem, Detective?”

“Uh, yeah. But someone lost a pair of shoes in one of the ladies toilets. As in, they were stuffed into the toilet bowl and it appears someone tried to flush them down the toilet. I don’t have a clue why anyone would do that, but I managed to get them free.” Chloe said, still somewhat confused by the situation. “Have you got any rubber gloves - like for washing dishes, and a couple of sturdy wire coat-hangers. I should be able to bend a coat-hanger to hook them out. I want the gloves to protect my hands.”

Patrick had overheard Chloe’s request and managed to produce a pair of rubber gloves. He said to her, “I don’t have any coat-hangers here, but there are probably some in the storage room.”

Lucifer made a little waving motion with his finger and disappeared into the back area. A few minutes later he reappeared, holding two metal coat-hanger in his hand. “Okay, off to the bathrooms we pop then.”

Chloe and Lucifer made their way through the club and through to the first level ladies' bathroom. One of the staff members had placed an ‘OUT-OF-ORDER sign on the outer door and locked it. Lucifer used his key, rather than break the lock, and they went inside, closing and locking the door behind them. The floor of the furthest-away cubicle was splashed with water. Chloe led the way to it and pulled on the gloves. She held out a hand and Lucifer passed her the coat-hangers. He peered into the stall and caught a glimpse of something that definitely didn’t belong in a toilet. Chloe untwisted the top part of one of the hangers and, after studying it and the shoes for a moment, gently prodded the water with the twisted coat-hanger. She managed to hook the top shoe and lifted it out of the toilet. She placed it on the floor. Lucifer stepped out of the cubicle and headed towards the paper towel dispenser in the bathroom. He pulled out several pieces and carried them back to the cubicle. He found Chloe studying the toilet again.

“Trying to work out how to best remove shoe number 2?” he asked.

“Yeah - it’s more wedged in than the other one. I might need to use both coat-hangers,” Chloe said, bending it into a similar shape to the other. Carefully, and after a couple of attempts, Chloe managed to hook the other shoe out of the toilet as well. She placed it onto the floor beside its pair.

“Why do I think you’ve done this sort of thing before, Detective?” Lucifer asked, as they studied the shoes. Lucifer, using a couple of the paper towels, picked up the shoes and turned them over. They were designer shoes - $350+ Badgley Mischka pumps.

“When Trixie was a toddler, she flushed her dolls because she wanted to ‘give them a jacuzzi’. I pulled them out - calling a plumber on the weekend would have wiped my pay cheque.” Chloe said, slightly pre-occupied with examining the shoes which had been rather lovely.

“These are $350+ shoes - who would flush them?”

“No idea. They would have been lovely before they were flushed. There’s no bringing those shoes back - there're diamonds missing, and the material is ruined.” Chloe said. She had a weakness for really nice shoes - she never got to wear them on the job, but she had worn them a lot more since she began her relationship with Lucifer.

* * *

Chloe and Lucifer left the bathroom and headed back to the bar, Lucifer still carrying the now-ruined shoes. Patrick, who was no longer surprised at the things that occurred in the club, had to admit the sight of his employer carrying a pair of very wet ladies' shoes with his girlfriend still wearing washing-up gloves was unexpected. They temporarily bypassed the bar and went out to the back of LUX. Lucifer lead the way into the storage room and put the shoes on a shelf. “Just in case their owner has flusher’s remorse.”

“Okay, so you managed to open the safe, and the frat boys have gone. We’ve solved the blocked toilet. What else is there?” Chloe asked.

“Registers are malfunctioning - which is apparently a software issue. Elsa, my other manager, has called the technical people and they’re sending someone out, but they may not get anyone to come until tomorrow. Then of course there’s the lack of beer supply” Lucifer sighed. “The company is sending out more distributors, but it’s taken so long now it might as well arrive tomorrow if it doesn’t get here soon.”

“Okay - well, why don’t you go up to the penthouse and change, then come down and put on a performance. A special mid-week performance from you will cheer people up,” Chloe said. She knew it would make her Devil feel better at least.

“Hmm. If you insist then,” Lucifer said. He stepped up to Chloe and kissed her gently. They heard cheering from the club and broke the kiss, slightly perplexed. “Now what?” Lucifer growled. They walked out into the main club area to see a club patron standing on one of the tables dancing rather well, although the striptease may have been helped along by liberal helpings of alcohol.

“He’s pretty good,” Chloe remarked, watching the show.

“Actually, you’re quite right.” Lucifer also watched the impromptu strip-show. Once the young man removed his pants, Lucifer stepped in and got his attention.

“Oh, hey man! I’m just enjoying the music of my people.” He turned and indicate the crowd. “My people.”

“That’s great, really. But you might want to get down before you hurt yourself and then sue me,” Lucifer said, offering a hand to help the young man down from the table.

“Oh, sure man. Is this place yours?” the young man asked.

“Yes, I’m Lucifer Morningstar, this is my club. Would you like a job?”

“I’m Harris Green. What kind of job?”

“Well, young Harris, you seem to enjoy dancing and you’re decent at it - want to dance here?” Lucifer said, feeling more like his usual self. The impromptu strip-dance had made him smile.

“Okay. Sure. But I only dance and, okay, sometimes I strip, I don’t do any other things though.” Harris’ eyes turned serious for a moment.

“Of course not. We only allow dancing here anyway,” Lucifer said. He turned and pointed to Elsa. “Why don’t you come back tomorrow before opening and talk to the pretty red-head over there, who is one of my managers, her name is Elsa. She’ll tell you everything you need to know about your employment here.”

Chloe stayed at the bar, watching the exchange amusedly. She looked at her phone and saw that it was now just before 11pm. She figured if she knew Trixie like she did, her daughter would still be awake. She quickly sent off a text message to her.

_Hi, honey. Sorry I haven’t checked in sooner - we got the bad guys. Just need to interview them tomorrow, then the cases will be wrapped in time for your party. I’m hoping you are at your dad’s place because you know I don’t like you to be alone of an evening._

The typing bubble appeared shortly after on Chloe’s phone screen. _Yep, Penny picked me up from our house after she finished work, and we’re at Dad’s now. Glad you can party tomorrow._

_Someone tried to flush a $350+ pair of designer shoes down the toilet at LUX._

_Really? That’s a crime against fashion._

_Yeah, they were really lovely before they went swimming in the toilet. Badgley Mischka brand pumps._

_Oh, my gosh! Alexis will cry if I tell her that. She loves that designer._

_Well, see you tomorrow monkey. I’ll pick you up after school._

_Sure thing, Night Mom._

_Night Trix._

Chloe put her phone in her pocket and saw two men in polo shirts carrying kegs behind the counter. Patrick put a glass of wine and a napkin in front of her, and asked, “Hey Chloe, can you tell Lucifer the alcohol delivery arrived and the technician for the registers is on the way here as well?”

“Sure thing,” Chloe sipped her drink and stood. Lucifer was no longer talking to the young man who been dancing on the table - he was now dancing on the dance floor instead. She saw her Devil talking to Elsa and another staff member and heads over to them. She stepped up beside Lucifer, who wrapped an arm around her.

“Thank you, ladies. I’m going to hope there are no more issues tonight.” Lucifer looked at Chloe, who shook her head to indicate she hadn’t heard any more issues had arisen.

“Actually, Patrick said to let you know that the alcohol delivery has occurred and the technician to fix the registers is on their way here.” Chloe told him.

“Good. Let’s go upstairs,” Lucifer said, noting Chloe was starting to look tired again.

“That sounds wonderful actually,” Chloe said, climbing the stairs to the elevator with Lucifer. They waited for the elevator to arrive and stepped inside. As the doors slid closed and blocked out most of the noise from the club, Chloe let out a huge yawn.

“Tired darling?” Lucifer said, putting an arm around her and tucking her close into his side..

“Yes, actually. But go back down and put on a show - I’ll wait for you,” Chloe said, hoping she wasn’t lying. The elevator doors opened to the penthouse, and they stepped out. Chloe headed towards the couch, knowing she was better to stay there and read reports of something if she wanted to stay awake to see Lucifer after his performance in the club. Lucifer headed into the bedroom and changed out of his work-day suit. 10 minutes later he stepped back out, hair re-groomed in a black suit, black vest and white silk shirt.

“Back soon, darling,” Lucifer said, walking over to Chloe and kissing her again. It was a favourite activity of his, one that he would never tire of. He headed back down to LUX, making sure he locked the elevator when he exited. He gave the now standing-room only crowd a few songs, bowing genially at the end, and headed back up to the penthouse. He smiled when he saw his Detective sprawled out on the couch in her pyjamas of a camisole and loose pants, where she’d obviously tried to wait up for him. He walked over and tucked his arms gently underneath her and lifted her up. She stirred and blinked sleepy eyes as she focused on his face.

“Must have fallen asleep,” she murmured. “Tried to wait for you, but sleepy now.”

Lucifer smiled down at her as he climbed the stairs to the bedroom. “I know. Bedtime.”


	13. A Nightmare On My Street

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cases are wrapped up, or at least ready to go to court. Chloe and Trixie prepare for the Halloween parties.

  
“We’ll need to interview Poole now - they’re going to transfer him to Atascadero to await his trial this afternoon,” Dan told Chloe the next day, as she and Lucifer were going over the notebooks that had been found in Poole’s hidey-hole.

“Atascadero?” Lucifer enquired, not knowing what Dan was talking about.

“Atascadero State Hospital - it’s an all-male maximum security facility for men who get convicted of serious crimes and are committed to a psychiatric facility,” Dan explained.

“Oh well, yes, that will be a good place to put Mr Poole, I would think.”

“Especially after last night,” Dan continued.

“Why, what did he do?” Chloe asked.

“I don’t have all the facts, but the guards last night said he was chanting, going into a trance, trying to cut himself and all sorts of weird things. He trashed the back of the police van as best he could - apparently there were three kinds of bodily fluids involved.”

They all made a face - the mess some criminals could make in order to try to get out of their restraints was truly disgusting.

“I’d say he knows how the system works and is trying to prove he’s crazy so he gets a lesser charge or something. He’s not crazy, but he is a psychopath, that’s for sure,” Chloe said.

“Did you read the notebooks?”

“Some of them.” Chloe shook her head. “He’s sane, just has no sense of empathy, and is a skilled liar and manipulator.”

They walked into the elevator and headed to the level that would take them to the holding cells. Stepping out, Chloe and Dan showed their ID to the guard on duty. Recognising Dan, he waved all three of them through, and they headed through to where the high-security solitary cells were. Two steels doors and a full body scan stood between them and the cells.

Having completed the body scan - Lucifer had left his flask in Chloe’s desk, knowing they’d have to go through the scan - they continued down the corridor. Steel doors with narrow slotted windows that were covered from the outside and lockable slots to pass through food lined the walls. Poole was in a cell close to the entry. The guard who was escorting them stopped and pointed to a nearby room, with a heavy table and chair that were bolted to the ground, and several metal loops in the ground. There were a couple of non-attached chairs on the other side of the room.

“You can interview him in there - I’ll bring him in for you,” he said, jangling keys and chains as he headed to Poole’s cell.

Chloe, Dan and Lucifer headed into the room and stood on the opposite side to where the chair was bolted and waited. The guard brought Poole into the room a few minutes later and attached the chains that were part of the high-security protocol to the loops in the floor.

The guard nodded to Dan and left the room. Poole, a sly look on his face, examined the three other people in the room. When his gaze fell on Lucifer’s face he immediately looked away, remembering how the taller man had simply held him up by the collar as if he were a rag-doll the previous evening. Clearing his throat he said, “Well, this is nice.”

“Interview with Josiah Poole on the matter of the stalking and murders of Janie Peterson, Henry Morgan and Takao ‘Tom’ Himi. In the room are Detective Chloe Decker, Detective Daniel Espinosa and Civilian Consultant Lucifer Morningstar.” Chloe recited the rest of the applicable information and then asked, “Mr Poole. You have been read your Miranda Rights - do you wish to have them repeated now?”

“No, thank you - I know my rights,” Poole said, a bored tone to his voice.

“Okay, Mr. Poole. There is considerable evidence linking you to the murders of three people. Is there anything you’d like to say on that matter?”

“What evidence do you have Detective?” Poole leaned forward, resting his hands on the table in front of him. He had not been told just how much evidence had piled up against him as he didn’t trust lawyers and refused point blank to have one.

“We found your hidey-hole, Joe,” Dan said, pulling a chair up to the table. “The chalk, the stones, the fabrics, the notebooks, everything.”

“The notebooks speak for themselves,” Lucifer commented. “Manipulating your landlord and the clerk at your building to keep them quite about your odd behaviours; joining a non-denominational religious group to give your stalking a cover; it’s all there really.”

“The question is, what was the motivation behind it?” Dan put in. The three of them had agreed on the way to interview Poole that based on his psychiatric profiling from when he was a child, and in keeping with the brief psychiatric analysis he’d undergone the previous evening, the best way to get him to spill was to speak about him as if he wasn’t there.

“Maybe his mother talked too much or his father wasn’t home often enough,” Chloe said, ignoring Poole now. They could see he was beginning to get somewhat agitated.

“Might just be he’s an asshole,” Dan commented. At that Poole jerked, having tried to lurch forward only to be restrained by the chains.

“No no no no no. I am the Holy Fire! The Lord burns the saints and sinners through my hand!” Poole began to speak rapidly in Latin. Chloe and Dan looked at each other then at Lucifer who simply raised his eyebrows at Poole.

“Enough with the gibberish,” Lucifer said. “Unlike the Detectives, I speak Latin. I know you were just saying random words.”

Poole quieted and glared at Lucifer, who simply grinned wolfishly and continued. “As for being the ‘holy fire’, well Dad’s pretty good at burning people himself, he certainly doesn’t need the help of a measly little worm like you.”

“Satan! Devil! Lord of Lies!” Poole spat, rattling his chains like a madman, hoping they’d stop questioning him and put him back in his cell.

Lucifer rocked back on his heels slightly, and tilted his head to one side. “Well, you do seem to have mastered the art of stating the obvious. Detective, may I?”

Chloe nodded - she was curious to see if Lucifer’s mojo would work on Poole or if he’d have to go full Devil-face on him. Lucifer moved to stand directly in front of Poole and leant down, placing his hands lightly on the table. Looking into Poole’s eyes he said, “Tell me, what is it you truly desire?”

Poole stammered and gulped like a goldfish then, in almost a trance said, “I want to kill. To watch the light go out of someone’s eyes is a real power trip. The final gasp of breath, the shudder as the brain disconnects. It’s delicious.”

Poole blinked and looked vaguely unnerved by him admission. Likely, Chloe thought, because he’d never actually admitted that out loud to anyone before. It wasn’t exactly something you went around telling people, as they’d stay well away from you and had you over to the police if they had any sense at all. She was glad to see that the mojo had worked on Poole - Lucifer still didn’t like going full Devil-face in front of Dan if he could avoid it.

“Is that why you killed the victims from the Haunted House crime scenes, because you wanted to kill people?” Chloe asked Poole.

He sighed, knowing that now he had little choice but to admit the truth, although honestly he didn’t see why they were all that bothered about it. “Yes. I killed all my victims because I enjoyed it. After I killed my mother - all she did was nag me to do more, and preach at me, that was relief and blessed silence because she finally shut up. I had to kill my father because he would have complained about it and tried to have me sent back to the institution they sent me to when I was 14. Mother didn’t want me to go, not really, but Father thought I was dangerous and wasn’t happy when I was allowed out early. I suppose I proved him right.”

“So why the ritual elements?”

“These victims were going to be my crowning glory - everyone was going to know my name at the end of it. I used the Haunted Houses as they made for good staging. I admit I like a little flourish.” Poole smiled at that.

* * *

Chloe, Lucifer and Dan headed back to the homicide department. After his slow start, Josiah Poole had spilled his guts in minute detail about every person he’d killed, starting from his mother and ending with Tom Himi. There had been 47 people in all. Most had been runaways, addicts or other people who wouldn’t be easily missed. He’s started with Janie Petersen because he wanted more of a challenge to avoid the police and see how long he could get away with it in each city. He hadn’t counted on Chloe’s dogged determination to find her bad guy. Nor had he appreciated someone else trying to attribute their murder to him.

The religious ramblings had been enough to set Lucifer’s teeth on edge. Apart from a hunger to kill, Poole firmly believed he was the ‘holy fire’ of God and had been charged with divesting the Earth of those who God deemed either worthy of absolution and needed to be ‘cleansed in the fires of Hell before that’ or sent to their eternal damnation. Chloe had signalled to Lucifer he could leave when she saw he was clearly struggling with keeping his Devil face from showing. He stepped out of the room and met them in the hallway afterwards.

“He’s the definition of a cold-blooded killer. He really just didn’t care about any of it.” Dan commented as the elevator doors opened. “What do you want me to do now?”

“Can you contact Missing Persons with the names we have, and see if they can look for the other victims he confessed to? I want to read those notebooks a bit more before we go and interview Matthew Tinker. He’s got psych evals now and then his lawyer has requested a two-hour break before we interview him after that.” Chloe said, heading to her desk. “I’ll see if Ella and Jack have anything else to say as well.”

Ella confirmed that they were working on matching a few things that had been taken from Matthew Tinker’s home and vehicle that morning and she’d have results for her before the interview, so Chloe and Lucifer spent the net few hours reading through Josiah Poole’s ramblings in the notebooks found in his unit. They revealed the callous mindset of a cold-blooded, sociopath who quite clearly enjoyed causing harm to others. He had stalked several other people who were to be future victims - he’d been particularly upset when one of his victims, who would have been number 4, wound up with food poisoning and he hadn’t been able to complete his task for the evening. Chloe made a note to get copies of any security feeds of the Haunted Houses where Poole had been or from buildings surrounding them, to try and trace his footsteps and prove he’d been waiting for his victims each night.

“This Poole is clearly worth of a prime position in the torture chambers of Hell. Unfortunately, he’d probably enjoy it. Maze would enjoy breaking him though.” Lucifer commented, finishing another notebook. “He decided upon Miss Peterson as his first victim in this one. It’s dated the third week of August. He’d well and truly infiltrated the religious group by then.”

Chloe added the information to her notes. The more details they had the better the case against Poole would be when it went to court. “Yeah, he’d joined them back in May.”

She stretched and checked the time. It had been well long enough for Matthew Tinker’s psych eval to be done and for his two hour break to be done. She picked up the receiver of the phone on her desk and dialled the number for his lawyer. “I’m coming to interview your client now.”

Whilst the voice on the other end of the phone was too muffled for even Lucifer’s hearing to make out, he could tell the tone was displeased. “I was informed when his psych evals were finished and it’s been more than two hours. If you want to be there, then you’ve got 15 minutes to get to the county jail interview area.”

Chloe hung up the phone and rolled her eyes. “Defence lawyers.”

“I take it Tinker’s lawyer doesn’t want you to interview him?”

“He wants longer between the psych eval and our interview. He’s had more than two hours as it is.” Chloe gathered the paperwork she needed and shrugged back into her jacket. Just then Lucifer’s phone rang. It was the LUX phone again, which was odd considering the time of day, as the club was actually closed.

“My apologies Detective,” he said, striding quickly off to one of the side areas. He answered his phone. “Hello?”

He listened for a minute, then said “Good. Just let the safe installers in and tell them to leave any paperwork, etc with Gloria - she’ll be there shortly.”

Ending the phone call he headed back to Chloe. “Not to worry, Detective. Just the day staff letting me know that the installers are on their way to replace the safe in the office.”

“Oh good.” Chloe was glad it hadn’t been something else going wrong - the club needed to be ready for it’s big party later tonight and for the high school party upstairs earlier in the evening. “Let’s go get this over with then so I can do the paperwork and go pick up Trixie on time.”

“Well then, you’d best get to the interview.” They headed to the observation area attached to the interview room and waited for Tinker to be brought up from holding and for his lawyer, a short harassed-looking man who seemed barely old enough to buy a beer, let alone be a lawyer to enter. Once Tinker’s lawyer sat down, Chloe entered the interview room. Lt. Harmon followed. Lucifer stayed in observation, not turning when Dan entered.

“Oh hey man, I thought you’d be in there with Chloe,” Dan commented, stepping up to the window.

“The lieutenant requested the chance to be in on one of the interviews,” Lucifer explained. “I very much doubt the Detective will need my powers of persuasion for this interview.”

Lt. Harmon let Chloe lead the interview - it was her case, he was just interested in the outcome. Detective Decker was a great police officer - her reports were detailed but concise, and her solve-rate with Mr Morningstar was one of the best in the entire LAPD. She was very much an asset to his department and he liked to check in on all of his detectives and officers.

“Lieutenant, Detective, you will direct all questions to me, not to my client.” Lorraine Patterson was a shark of a defense attorney. “I will also be filing an injunction to have anything you found in his house inadmissible in court.”

Chloe had heard all this before - she’d come up against Lorraine several times since the lawyer had moved to Los Angeles. She wasn’t sure how Matthew Tinker was able to pay for her services, as she did not come cheap, but she supposed that wouldn’t matter soon.

“You can certainly try that, Ms Patterson, but the search warrant was duly signed by Judge Sheffield, after we had arrested your client,” Chloe said, pulling out a copy of the search warrant to show Lorraine. She took it and examined it carefully, looking for anything that might allow her to have it thrown out. Unfortunately, the footage of her client on the security camera - and given his build there were very few other people it could have been, combined with the fact that he’d been wearing the damn jacket he’d worn to the crime scene when he was arrested, she wasn’t going to be able to do anything about the search warrant. Judge Sheffield was known for liking every box checked and every i dotted before he signed off on warrants, and once the Detective had said his name, Lorraine knew trying to squash the search warrant was going to be a futile move.

Chloe continued. “Your client’s jacket was identified by the company who tailored it, and indeed by the tailor who did the adjusting, as the one worn by the person on the surveillance camera footage from the crime scene. It was matched down to the one-of-a-kind button and the sizing measurements as well.”

“By a tailor with very little experience,” Lorraine scoffed. She could probably get that thrown out of court, but she’d have to be careful as her husband loved that particular tailor shop and he’d be upset if she angered them.

“Whilst Matteo Ferrante might not have been tailoring for as extensive a time as his father, his work is accurate and his ability to identify fabrics and related things is exceptional.” Chloe told the lawyer. Matteo had told them the specifics of what Tinker’s suit was made from, and it had matched exactly the jacket he was wearing upon his arrest. “There were also cat hairs on several items of your client’s clothes that matched a hair found on Ms Firestone’s body in a location that meant it could only have come from the killer.”

Lorraine was less than happy with this news - if they were able to DNA match the cat fibres, she was going to have a very hard time defending her client. Thankfully, she’d be paid anyway, but still.

“So, I think the best thing for your client would be for him to tell us why he murdered Ms. Firestone, then maybe we can work out a deal or something.”

“I need a moment to speak with my client, Detective,” Lorraine said, her mind whirring and calculating her next steps.

* * *

Chloe signed the last piece of paperwork and slid it into the file folder. Both Matthew Tinker and Josiah Poole would be sent to trial, and their futures would be decided upon by the juries in their cases. She was pretty sure Josiah Poole would be sent back to Atascadero State Hospital for the rest of his lifetime - it was pretty clear he enjoyed killing, and he’d admitted to having killed many more than just her three victims. Matthew Tinker on the other hand had only had one goal - to make Luna Firestone be his, and his kidnapping attempt - spiking her one coffee of the evening with ketamine hadn’t worked quite as well as he’d hoped it would - and then suddenly, he had a dead woman on his hands.

Chloe had sent Lucifer away after finishing the interview with Patterson, with the reasoning that she needed to do the paperwork and he hated the ‘boring’ part of her job. Besides, she’d reminded him, he needed to oversee the set up for LUX’s big Halloween party that night. He’d given her that grin that promised all sorts of fun later and headed off. Once he’d left, she’d dumped half the paperwork on Dan, because she could, and begun her share. She had some things to do before she picked up Trixie and they went home to prepare for their Halloween celebrations. She stood and collected her belongings - phone, keys, jacket, work-bag and walked past Dan’s desk.

“Okay - I’m off now. I’m going to pick up Trixie when school finishes and we’re going to get ready for tonight. Have fun with Penny and her kids tonight,” Chloe.”

“Thanks, we will. Tell Trix I’ll swing by your place before the party with Penny and the kids - they want to see Trixie’s costume, and show her theirs.”

Chloe nodded and headed towards the elevators. She was glad Dan was making more of an effort with his daughter than he had when they were married. She also hoped, for his sake, that his relationship with Penny stayed its course. Of course, Penny being a paediatric nurse, it meant he was unlikely to be working with her and therefore couldn’t gaslight her on the job. Chloe shoved those thoughts aside. Her feelings about her own marriage and relationship with Dan were still complicated at times, but she valued her friendship with him purely to make things easier as co-parents.

She arrived in the parking garage and walked to her car. She had to make a couple of stops, then she’d be able to pick up Trixie from school. The first stop was a quick one - she needed to pick up her and Lucifer’s costumes for Trixie’s party, and they were ready and waiting for her. The black wig for her Morticia Addams costume had it’s own care instructions, which was a little it daunting, but she knew it would look really good when she was finished. They’d decided on the version of Morticia and Gomez Addams from the tv series, with Carolyn Jones and John Astin as the leads. How she’d managed to persuade Lucifer into being Gomez Addams, especially since he’d have to be clean-shaven to pull it off, she still wasn’t sure. Although, it might have had something to do with the riding crop she happened to be holding at the time. She smiled to herself at that particular memory.

Putting the costumes in the boot of her car, she moved onto her next errand. She pulled up out the front of a nondescript apartment building and went inside. 30 minutes later she came out laden down with items - more than she’d have thought considering this outfit had a lot less involved than her first one. But it did require certain underwear items, so that was what some items were. She was grateful to have time between parties to change - she’d need it. Lucifer wasn’t going to the LUX party until at least 11:30 because he liked to make an entrance. He didn’t know what she was going as for that party - he’d simply decided to go as a 1920s gangster, originally because they’d been watching Chicago together as he’d been ‘educating’ her on the finer points of musical theatre which was a ‘slightly embarrassing’ (his words) form of relaxation for him, and when Trixie had announced the Halloween party and insisted Lucifer come, he’d stuck with that option because it would require very little other than changing his clothes and the way he styled his hair for him to change costumes.

Chloe was now ready to pickup Trixie and they could go and get ready for the party. Fighting her way through traffic - it always got worse towards school let out hours, she managed to arrive at Trixie’s school within 20 minutes of school being let out - almost a record. Trixie, spotting her mother’s car, waved to Alexis whom she was waiting with and headed over.

“Hey Mom! Ready for tonight?” Trixie asked, delighted that she was going to have a Halloween party her school friends weren’t likely to forget any time soon.

“Yep. Got the costumes, and we just have to pick up the cupcakes on our way to LUX. I need to ring the bakery before we leave home and they’ll box them up and have them ready for us to collect when we get there,” Chloe said as Trixie did up her seatbelt and she pulled away from the curb.

They arrive home and Trixie helped her mother take all the costumes inside. They would go to LUX well before the party started so Chloe could help with anything related to Trixie’s party and she could stash her second outfit, and give Lucifer his costume as well.

“Let’s get our costumes on then I can help you with your make-up Mom,” Trixie said, heading to her bedroom. Chloe paused on her way to the stairs and frowned for a moment - she was perfectly capable of doing make-up.

“I mean, helping you by telling you if it’s dark enough or whatever,” Trixie added, sticking her head back out of her room, having heard Chloe’s footsteps pause. “Then you can help me with mine.”

“Oh, sure, honey,” Chloe said, continuing on her way upstairs. She’d need a shower since it was unlikely she’d have time to have one in between costume changes later. 20 minutes later, feeling refreshed, Chloe stood in her underwear, trying to decide the best way to actually get into her costume. There was no zipper on the dress and Chloe decided she was going to need help to get the dress on or she was going to be stuck like a sausage in its case. She picked up her phone and send Trixie a quick message.

_Help me with my dress! It’s a two-person effort to get it on._

_LOL. Okay, give me a minute or two and I’ll bring my stuff up there._

Sure. Chloe put her phone back down and sat on her bed. She was glad she’d chosen slightly less revealing underwear under this outfit than she needed to wear under her second costume - she didn’t want to traumatise her daughter too much. After a few minutes she heard Trixie thumping up the stairs and then she came into the room.

“So, what’s the problem?” Trixie asked, surveying her mother and seeing she was only in her underwear. Underwear that defined her mom’s curves, which would flatter the cut of the dress.

“Well, there’s no zipper or anything in the dress, so it’s got to go on over my head, but it’ll encase me like sausage skin so I won’t be able to pull it down. That’s where you come in. You’ll pull it down and hep me get my arms in their holes.” Chloe explained her predicament to Trixie.

“Oh sure, I can do that. Then you need to do up my costume for me when I’ve got it on.” Trixie picked up her mother’s costume. The material was stretchy but she could instantly see it was the sort of outfit you needed an extra person to put on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Atascadero State Hospital is a real psychiatric facility in California where men who are sentenced to serve their jail times in a psychiatric facility in the state of California, are sent. These are the things I Google just for you. ;)


	14. Monster Boogie

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The lead up to the party, Deckerstar fluff and the start of the party.

Lucifer stood at the top of the stairs leading to the elevator to his penthouse. LUX was looking particularly festive that night - clearly his staff had gone to town with the Halloween decorations, but it looked good rather than lurid or tacky. The dance cages had been decorated with skeletons in various dance poses; pumpkin-shaped lanterns that were battery operated sat on the tables, spilling warm light over the tables. Black, silver and orange streamers hung from the ceiling, and Halloween-shaped sequins were scattered all over the floor. The cleaning crew were going to charge an insane amount for the clean-up but it would be worth it. The bartenders and servers were all going to be wearing black pants or skirts, with red shirts and Devil-horn headbands as a nod to their boss.

He smiled and entered the elevator. He wanted to check the area where Trixie’s school would be having their festivities. He had met Gloria on her way out and she’d said everything was going smoothly, but he wanted to check for himself. Beatrice’s happiness was of utmost importance to him, and if there was anything wrong, he wanted to fix it before it became a problem. Pressing the button to take him to the correct floor, Lucifer thought about his costumes for the evening. He wouldn’t admit it to anybody, except maybe his Detective given the right persuasion, but he quite liked the character of Gomez Addams, as ridiculous as the show and movies were - which he admitted were part of their charm. He was unafraid to show his emotions - especially towards his wife, and was also unafraid to show everyone who he really was, no matter what they thought of him. These were things he had gotten a lot better at doing since he had been in a relationship with his Detective.

The elevator doors opened, and he stepped out into apparently another world. The high school parents had transformed the enormous function room and surrounding smaller rooms and hallway into a Halloween extravaganza. He was currently in what appeared to be a hall of mirrors, which was in actuality a hallway. Amused and just slightly weirded out, he wandered about, poking his head into different rooms, and found himself rather impressed. In the function room, which was now decorated like the inside of a castle ballroom, he found Yolanda Washburn and several other people he assumed were also parents of the high schoolers who would be here later that afternoon.

“Mr Morningstar I presume?” Yolanda walked forward and held out a hand. “Yolanda Washburn. I just want to say thank you for allowing us to host the party here for the kids.”

“It’s important for them to have fun and a chance to be a bit naughty,” Lucifer said, shaking Yolanda’s hand.

“We think so to, which is why we are so grateful to you. We were just discussing who was coming back tomorrow to disassemble everything. Is there a time that would be more preferable? “ Yolanda asked.

“Gloria can let you in at any time - just call her to set a time. I’ve set the locks on the elevators and the bouncers at the club have strict orders to only let people with the proper ids into the elevator during drop off and pick-up times. I don’t think you’ll have any problems there, but they’re on alert just in case.” Lucifer looked around. “You’ve done an excellent job - I hardly recognise the place.”

“Well, that’s a huge compliment right there.” Yolanda said.

“I must be off, but please let me know if you require anything. I will assist Detective Decker in her chaperoning duties tonight.” With that, Lucifer turned and left, heading to the elevator to go up to the penthouse.

He stepped out of the elevator and into his penthouse. He wandered over to his bar and poured himself a whiskey. He check the time - Chloe and the Urchin wouldn’t be there before 4:30pm and it was just after 3pm, so he sat down at his piano and began to play - practising for a request asked of him by Beatrice for her class, as they required music for the performance they were putting on, and she had asked him to be their musician. He had of course agreed, not being a Devil to turn down the chance to perform in front of people. He got lost in the music, as often happened if he had time to just play for himself, and before he knew it was after 4pm. His phone rang, and it pulled him out of the music’s spell.

“Hello?” he answered. “Oh, hello Vince. How is life treating you? Have you really?” Lucifer let the man on the other end of the phone talk about his newest project - a life-size statue of some retiring sports star. Vince Trotski or Vince T was he went professionally, was an excellent sculptor and could use just about any material -wood, stone, clay, metal, etc to make his works of art.

“Well, as delightful as that sounds, I’m afraid I must decline. I’m strictly a monogamous Devil now.” Lucifer listened, then let out a laugh. “No, no. She’s a Detective with the Los Angeles Police Department.” He listened for a moment longer. “Yes, feel free to stop by LUX if you are in Los Angeles again. Bye now.” Lucifer ended the call. Vince had invited him to participate in what would have been a very interesting weekend in Miami, which he might have taken part in prior to his relationship with Chloe, but now he was a very happy monogamous Devil. He walked over to the bar and refilled his glass, which he’d finished earlier. His girls, as he privately thought of Chloe and Trixie, would be there soon. He checked the fridge in the bar and was pleased that he’d remembered to put the juice Trixie liked in there, and that the bottle of wine from the previous evening that Chloe enjoyed was still there as well.

The elevator pinged and he turned to see Chloe and Trixie, both costumed and laden with boxes and bags. He walked over to them and took some bags and boxes from them. “Ladies.”

“Hi Lucifer,” Trixie said. He wasn’t sure exactly who she was dressed as, but her costume seemed to consist of a black leather and lycra leotard type outfit, with a hood that she was not currently wearing and long, knee-length leather boots he was pretty sure he’d brought for Chloe a few years prior.

“Beatrice, who are you dressed as?”

“Catwoman. My costume isn’t quite finished - I need to fix up my hair and put my mask on, but I’ll do that later.” Trixie sat down on the piano stool.

“Speaking of costumes,” Chloe handed him a suit bag. “Here’s yours.”

“Detective, please don’t tell me you’re wearing that ridiculous jacket with that outfit?” Lucifer stated accepting the suit bag from her. Chloe had thrown a hoodie on over her dress because the wind had picked up outside and it was pretty cold.

“No - it was just cold outside, and this was the first thing I grabbed,” she said, pushing errant strands of black hair from her wig out of her face. Lucifer nodded and walked towards his bedroom.

“Hey Lucifer, can I play the piano?” Trixie asked.

“Have you been practising the newest piece?” Lucifer paused in the doorway of the bedroom.

“Of course.” Trixie huffed. Lucifer hid a smile - he knew Trixie had been practising the latest song he’d taught her on the piano.

“Well then, go ahead. I’ll hear you.” With that he continued, heading through the bedroom into the adjoining bathroom. Lucifer had been teaching her piano for the last four and a bit years, and in that time she had progressed far quicker than he would have thought - she had a natural talent for music. Currently, since she’d requested to learn trickier pieces, he’d shown her DeBussy’s ‘Serenade for the Doll, No. 3’. Trixie stood up and moved the piano stool to suit her much smaller frame and pulled her folder of sheet music from her bag. Opening the folder to the newest piece, she set it against the holder and began to play.

* * *

Lucifer could hear Trixie playing the current piece he’d given her to learn as he stood at the sink in the bathroom. He hadn’t been clean shaven in years - in fact he wasn’t sure he remembered what he looked like without his well-maintained 5 o’clock shadow. He looked at the razor in it’s holder. His facial hair would be back by the next morning, of that he was certain - it was one of the reasons why he’d stopped removing it all together and just styled it to suit him. He’d found the professional-grade false moustache in the costume bag and the glue that was required to attach it to his face. With a sigh he lathered shaving cream over his entire lower face and raised the razor to his cheek.

As he swiped off the last of his stubble, Chloe entered the bathroom. She stopped and stared at Lucifer for a moment, then blinked and shook her head. “You’re still ridiculously good-looking, although I have to say I prefer the stubble.”

Lucifer, who had bent to wash the residual shaving cream off his face, turned his head to look at Chloe. “Well, thank-you Detective. The dark hair is an interesting look for you, although I must say I prefer the blonde hair. But you could make anything look great.”

“I think we’re both just stupid for each other no matter what we’re dressed like.” Chloe said, grinning at him. Lucifer dried his face and tuned to face her.

“That very well could be. Still, I prefer you as my Chloe,” he said, laying a kiss on her forehead. She sighed and leaned into his warmth, wrapping her arms around him. Feeling the tension draining out of her, Lucifer wrapped his own arms around her and held onto her for a few minutes. She could now, with the cases solved and her daughter happy, take a few minutes just for herself. Sighing, she pulled away.

“Let me put your moustache on. Otherwise we’ll wind up being late. Plus, there’s only so many times Trixie can play that piece before it’s awkward for her.” Chloe said. Lucifer laughed and handed her the moustache and the glue. Chloe read the instructions on the glue carefully and wondered aloud. “Do you know if you’re allergic to costume glue?”

“Not that I’m aware of, Detective.” Lucifer smiled mischievously. “I have had some interesting adventures in my time, and I haven’t been allergic to costume glue as yet.”

Chloe didn’t really know what to do with that information, so she just shook her head and applied the glue to the moustache. “Okay, hold still while I put this on you.”

Lucifer held still while Chloe gently stuck the moustache that would turn him into Gomez Addams onto his upper lip. Once she was done, he looked in the mirror. “Hmm. Not sure how I feel about mustaches on me.”

“Strangely, it’s doing things for me,” Chloe murmured, not realizing she’d spoken aloud.

“Really, Detective?” Lucifer asked, a suggestive tone to his voice.

“Oh, did I say that out loud?” Chloe asked, slightly embarrassed.

“Yes you did,” Lucifer all but purred it.

“Well, obviously I’m channelling my character, aren’t I?” Chloe said, knowing she wouldn’t be able to get away with playing dumb.

“Of course you are,” Lucifer said, allowing her to have her denial. He saved this little tidbit for another time. “Now, unless you want to be ravished right now, I suggest you go back out there so I can ‘suit up’ for the Urchin’s party.”

Chloe left the bathroom so Lucifer could change.

“Well, how weird does Lucifer look without his stubble?” Trixie asked her mother as she finished the last few notes of the piano piece.

“Not weird, just different.” Chloe said, looking down so Trixie didn’t see her blush. She walked over to the bar. Seeing Lucifer’s glass, she refilled it, since they’d interrupted him when they arrived. She opened the fridge under the bar and saw that Lucifer had stocked Trixie’s favourite juice and still had the wine she’d enjoyed from the previous evening. She took out the juice, saving the wine for later, and poured two glasses. She offered one to Trixie who had wandered over to the bar and was now sitting on one of the stools Lucifer kept behind it unless he was expecting them.

10 minutes later Lucifer appeared in the bedroom's doorway, wearing the pin-striped suit and having styled his hair to suit the part.

“Well, what do you think?” he said, spreading his arms out to the sides.

“You look just like him from the tv show,” Trixie said. “Only more Luciferish.”

“Luciferish?”

“Yeah - you always look fancy and put together like someone out of a magazine, so you’re the Luciferish version of the Addams Family guy,” Trixie explained.

“Oh, well, I suppose that’s not too bad then.” Lucifer said. “You’re doing well with the DeBussy piece.”

“I’ve been practising.” Trixie said, pleased with the praise.

“I could hear that. Just don’t be quite so eager in the first part - it’s slower there.”

Trixie made sure to remember that for the next time she played. “Okay, I must listen to it again before I play next time I practise.”

Lucifer realised Chloe had yet to speak. He looked at her and saw she had a huge grin on her face. “What is amusing you, Detective?”

“You are. It’s true what Trixie says - you’re almost always very dapper and well-presented, and so is Gomez Addams in his way, but you’ve kinda of elevated him to a new level.” Chloe explained. She checked the time on her phone and said, “Right, we’ve got 15 minutes before we need to head downstairs. Trix, get your hair done so you can put your mask on. I’ll sort out the cupcakes.”

“Lucifer, how much hairstyling stuff do you have?” Trixie asked.

“Come this way,” he said, leading her off towards the bedroom where she slept on the rare occasions she stayed at the penthouse. The attached bathroom was filled with many hair products and they soon worked out a way to tame her hair enough that it would fit under the attached hood finished her outfit, without it looking strange. Trixie then donned the black domino mask that would help give her Catwoman’s well-known visage.

“Thanks Lucifer,” she said, grinning. They walked back out to see Chloe placing the last of the cupcakes into a white cardboard box.

She gestured to two cupcakes that had not been boxed. “Those are for you two. They won’t fit in the boxes, so you can have them.”

* * *

They headed downstairs to where the party was going to be held. Trixie was excited to meet up with Alexia and Gemma, who should be there pretty soon. In fact, she saw Gemma standing near her mother, who was dressed as a doll, complete with a red wool-like wig. She waved to Gemma, who’s face brightened and walked over to meet her.

Chloe, also having seen Gemma, smiled. Gemma had a tendency to have very low self-confidence, although it had gotten better in the time Chloe had known her - probably because of Trixie and Alexis’ influence. Her Poison Ivy outfit showed off the curves she had quite clearly inherited from her mother. Chloe remembered wearing a Wonder Woman costume to a Halloween party when she was about the same age. It had been fun to be someone else. Yolanda Washburn, Gemma’s mother, saw her and beckoned her over.

“Hi Chloe. You look amazing! Morticia Addams, right?” Yolanda said, indicating Chloe’s costume.

“Hi Yoldana. Yeah, Lucifer and I are Morticia and Gomez Addams. You’re a Raggedy Ann doll, right?” Chloe asked.

“That’s right. I found one that my grandmother had given me when I was a girl a few months ago going through some stuff and I thought, that would make a great Halloween costume, so here I am.” Yolanda laughed. She spotted the white boxes Lucifer was holding and said, “You can put those over there - on the soon-to-be operating table, please Mr Morningstar.”

“You have really done an excellent job decorating,” Chloe said, looking around. She’d been in some of these rooms before, Lucifer having shown her parts of the building at her request one day early in their relationship, but it was currently unrecognisable. They appeared to be in a hall of mirrors, similar to those that were found at many carnivals and sideshows. It was just a tad eerie, seeing herself over and over again, many of the reflections warped out of shape altogether.

“Thanks - thankfully Hank, uh, Hank Greene, is good with a hammer and nails. We were able to build or adjust much of the things we’d had planned for the school, to fit them here. We can just remove it all tomorrow and no-one will be any the wiser once we’re done.”

“Well, that will make my cleaning crew happy,” Lucifer said, having rejoined Chloe to hear the end of Yolanda’s statement.

“We’d better go find our positions,” Chloe said. Each of the parents who had agreed to chaperone the event had been given an area where they would keep an eye on the students.

“Ah yes, about that. Um, I had to swap you with Alison Greeves. So now you’re in the science lab instead of the main ballroom. At least for now. It’s really just starting positions until we get all the kids through the ‘trick or treat’ part. Then everyone can mingle wherever they like. We just need supervision so the same kids don’t keep visiting the same places for candy.” Yolanda sighed. “You know how Alison is.”

Chloe nodded. She knew Alison Greeves - the woman was exactly like many of the people Chloe had met during her acting years. Always wanting more attention than they had, wanting to be in the spotlight and happily pushing people out of their way to do so. It didn’t really bother her, although she thought Lucifer might make a stink about it, so she was a little surprised when he just nodded. “Where is the science lab then?”

“Third door on the right.”

Chloe took Lucifer’s hand, and they walked down the hallway to where Yolanda had told them. The door had been covered in something and made to appear to look like a metal science lab-like door. There were caution and radiation signs, warnings to wear masks and gloves and more ominously, not to feed the plants.

“Well, let’s go get in position. I think some of Trixie’s science teachers are manning this station.” Chloe said, turning the door handle. They were greeted with a subtle smell of ozone and maybe sulfur. The room, which if Lucifer remembered correctly, was in its usual state, a function room. Now it was most definitely a science lab, although the sort of science going on here would most likely be very detrimental to one’s health if it were actually implemented. The room had been decorated with an assortment of glowing and misshapen creatures in jars and bottles, vials and beakers of coloured liquids, some of which were smoking. There were pipes and wires, and other things that neither Lucifer or Chloe could actually put a name to. All in all the room looked like a mad scientist’s laboratory.

Chloe recognised, barely, one of the teachers, who was dressed as Doc. Brown from Back To The Future. He came over and shook hands with her and Lucifer. “Hugh Jacobs, Chemisty Department. Trixie is a wonderful student. Has an excellent grasp on chemistry and makes sure to help those in the class who maybe don’t understand things as well as she does. It reflects well on her and on her parents.”

“Well, thanks, but that’s all Trixie. My knowledge of science is very limited.” Chloe said.

Hugh laughed. “I imagine you need a fairly decent brain to become a Detective in the police force. Plus, it’s nice to see parents, and extended family members, encourage girls in S.T.E.M. subjects.”

“We try to encourage Trixie in whatever she wants to do.” Chloe said. Somewhere a bell rang, and High looked around.

“Oh, that’s the signal for us to get ourselves together. The kids ought to be arriving in 15 minutes.” Hugh said, hurrying over to a table piled with beakers, jars and all sorts of implements.

Sure enough, within 15 minutes students began to trail through the various rooms, watching the demonstrations or scenes their teacher had set up for them, getting their treats or tricks in the case of some, and milling about with their friends. Trixie, spying her mother and Lucifer in the science lab instead of the Castle Ballroom where they were supposed to be, wandered over and asked in an undertone, “Why are you here? Aren’t you supposed to be in the Ballroom? Not that it matters, but you didn’t say you’d be in here.”

Lucifer, who had heard every word clearly over the spooky sounds being pumped through the speakers, bent slightly so Trixie could hear him, and told her, “We were switched because some woman named Alison Greeves wanted to be in the Ballroom.”

Trixie harrumphed at this information. “Typical Mandy-Pandy and her mother.”

“Mandy-Pandy?” Lucifer asked, wondering at the venom in Trixie’s voice.

“I’ll explain later, but she’s never a good thing to happen to anyone, and neither is her mother.” Trixie said. She saw Alexis signal to her and nodded. “Gotta go. Don’t forget about later.”

“I’ll be there, Urchin.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMSmb9UZ2r4 - a video of the song Trixie plays on the piano in case you want to hear it.


	15. We Only Come Out At Night

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trixie's Halloween Bash is in full swing. Some fluff, some humour (and a throwback to childhood with Roald Dahl) and we find out why Mandy is so mean!
> 
> Also Trixie sings - {{it's been revealed by numerous sources that she sings in the musical episode in S5b hence her singing in this chapter.}}
> 
> Hope you all had a reasonable start to 2021.

Trixie was having the time of her life. Gemma and Alexis looked amazing in their costumes - Gemma as Poison Ivy, and Alexis as Harley Quinn, and Trixie’s Catwoman completing their villainous trio. They had explored most of the set-ups their teachers had set up for them, and she had to admit they’d all done an excellent job with the various scenes they had put up. Right now, Gemma, Alexis and herself were enjoying the music playing in the ballroom, currently dancing to the theme of Scooby Doo which was playing.

Alexis nudged Trixie and pointed to a group of boys dressed as Batman, The Joker and Riddler. Tobias Walters, the boy Gemma had a crush on, and who had one back, was dressed as Batman. Trixie nodded at Alexis and stepped away. She went over to the boy dressed as The Joker, Justin Harper, who took chemistry classes with her.

“Hey Justin. You should bring Tobias and Andrew over to dance with us,” Trixie said, indicating Alexis and Gemma just behind her.

“Sure,” Justin said. He liked Trixie - she was fun, and he knew her friends weren’t airheads. He signalled to Tobias and Andrew and they moved over to the girls.

“Your costumes are really good,” Andrew said. It was the truth - the girls had really good costumes, much better than some others he’d seen.

“Thanks, so are yours,” Alexis replied. They stood in a loose circle dancing and talking for a while as various students entered or exited the room. After a while, Gemma and Tobias, who had been strategically made to stand next to each other by their friends, held hands as they stood talking.

From across the room, Mandy Greeves stood with her groups of friends. She was not pleased to see Tobias holding hands with Gemma Washburn. It wasn’t that she especially liked Tobias, although he wasn’t bad looking, it was the prestige of being with the school football captain and the son of one of the wealthiest families at Sun Valley High School. Flipping her hair over her shoulder, adjusting her mermaid outfit for maximum impact, she signalled to her friends and they approached the target.

“Tobias, how are you? I love your costume.” Mandy simpered as she sauntered up to Tobias. Tobias, who had been surprised Mandy hadn’t approached him by now, sighed inwardly. Outwardly he squeezed Gemma’s hand gently and took a step back from Mandy.

“Hello Mandy. I’m well - your costume is interesting,” he said. Mandy’s mermaid outfit consisted of a sparkly bikini, and sparkly material draped from her waist which was shaped into a tail at her feet to cover her legs. There were some seashells stuck to the waist and a few smaller ones stuck at random over the rest of her ‘tail’. She had some seashell bracelets and earrings as well. The outfit looked like a child had made it.

Mandy batted her eyelashes at Tobias, ignoring the fact that he was still holding Gemma’s hand. Obviously he had manners and was just being nice to her. She could forgive that, she supposed. She flipped her hair over her shoulder again. “So, once we’ve done here, I’m hosting a small get-together at my parent’s beach-house. You’re more than welcome to come.”

“Oh, thanks, but I’ve got other plans. Gemma and I are going to catch the last showing of Zombie Desperado 3 after we finish here. But thanks for the invite anyway,” Tobias said. He watched Mandy’s facial expression turn mutinous and had to surpress a laugh.

“Well, if I were you, I wouldn’t spend to much time with any of the Washburn’s because your reputation is likely to take a hit,” Mandy said, venom in her tone.

“What is that supposed to mean?” Trixie challenged Mandy, offended that Mandy would even suggest there was something wrong with Gemma’s family.

“Oh, well, it was just there was an article about Washburn Telecommunications and how they are under investigation for fraud, or something,” Mandy said. “I mean, I don’t actually read business articles, but Daddy was talking about it.”

Gemma, upon hearing this started laughing. A deep belly laugh that cause her to bend in half. Regaining her composure as everyone looked at her, she shook her head and explained. “The Washburn family that own Washburn Telecommunications isn’t related to mine, or at least not closely. And also they weren’t being investigated - they had gathered evidence against a competitor who had been committing fraud.”

Mandy’s expression soured. She hated to be wrong, although she hated not getting what she wanted even more. Tossing her hair, she spun on her heels and sauntered away, her gaggle of followers tagging along behind her.

“Urgh, she’s like her own Halloween movie,” Alexis said, shaking her head.

“Or least the blonde lead that always dies,” Andrew said, eliciting a chuckle from the group.

From across the room, Chloe watched her daughter and friends send the blonde bombshell off with a huff. Mandy had been causing problems for the girls for the last couple of years, so Chloe was glad they had been able to handle her without her causing problems for them.

“Whose the snooty blonde?” Lucifer asked, bending his head to speak into her ear.

“Mandy Greeves - it was her mother who wanted to swap from the science lab to here,” Chloe said. “She’s a bit of a pain in the butt, Trixie finds her annoying and her mother is quite a snob.”

“It seems whatever the Urchin and her friends said, made her leave them alone,” he replied.

The students flowed in and out of the ballroom, until a bell chimed and those who weren’t in the ballroom came flooding back in. There were to be a few different performances by some of the classes, as part of their ‘Deadly Talent Show’. The parents and teachers gathered in behind the students as well. One of the teachers, dressed as David Bowie’s Goblin King, jumped up on the stage and walked to the microphone.

“Okay everybody - can I have your attention please? First up, we’ll do the performances for the talent show. When they’re over, we’ll do the awards, which will be the talent show winners, spot prizes and of course the costume winners.”

* * *

Trixie, Gemma and Alexis were waiting for their turns for the talent show. Trixie was going to sing, accompanied by the piano, Alexis would do a short performance from her ballet class and Gemma, who had an aptitude for public speaking and storytelling, was going to be reading a Maya Angelou poem.

“Gemma Washburn, reading ‘The Pig’ by Roald Dahl,” the teacher dressed as the Goblin King - Mr. Caruthers, one of the English teachers, announced.”

“Go Gems!” Trixie and Alexis whispered in encouragement as Gemma climbed up the few stairs to the stage. She walked to where a microphone was standing in the centre of the stage. Taking a calming breath she spoke:

“Most of us know Roald Dahl’s works through Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda and the BFG. He also published quite a few silly and gross poems, and this one seemed kind of appropriate, given it’s Halloween.

‘ _In England once there lived a big and wonderfully clever pig._  
_To everybody it was plain that Piggy had a massive brain._  
_He worked out sums inside his head, there was no book he hadn’t read._  
_He knew what made an airplane fly, he knew how engines worked and why._  
_He knew all this, but in the end, one question drove him round the bend:_  
_He simply couldn’t puzzle out, what LIFE was really all about._  
_What was the reason for his birth? Why was he placed upon this earth?_  
_His giant brain went round and round. Alas, no answer could be found._  
_Till suddenly one wondrous night. All in a flash he saw the light._  
_He jumped up like a ballet dancer, and yelled, ‘By gum, I’ve got the answer! '_  
_‘They want my bacon slice by slice, to sell at a tremendous price!_  
_‘They want my tender juicy chops, to put in all the butcher’s shops!_  
_‘They want my pork to make a roast, and that’s the part’ll cost the most!_  
_‘They want my sausages in strings! They even want my chitterlings!_  
_‘The butcher’s shop! The carving knife! That is the reason for my life! '_  
_Such thoughts as these are not designed to give a pig great peace of mind._  
_Next morning, in comes Farmer Bland, a pail of pigswill in his hand,_  
_And piggy with a mighty roar, bashes the farmer to the floor…_ ”

Gemma paused for effect.

“ _Now comes the rather grisly bit so let’s not make too much of it,_  
_Except that you must understand that Piggy did eat Farmer Bland,_  
_He ate him up from head to toe, chewing the pieces nice and slow._  
_It took an hour to reach the feet, because there was so much to eat,_  
_And when he finished, Pig, of course, felt absolutely no remorse._  
_Slowly he scratched his brainy head and with a little smile he said,_  
_I had a fairly powerful hunch that he might have me for his lunch._  
_And so, because I feared the worst, I thought I’d better eat him first._ ”

With a smile Gemma did a little curtsey and left the stage to applause, laughter and whistles of appreciation. She had a knack for getting the rhythm and flow of a poem or story just right and enthralling her audience. The only ones who weren’t impressed were Mandy and her mother, who were instead rather jealous of Gemma’s natural ability to capture an audience. They were standing near Lucifer and Chloe and whilst Chloe couldn’t hear exactly what was being said by them, Lucifer could and it displeased him. He’d enjoyed Gemma’s reading - he’s found the poem funny, and she was clearly a natural at telling a story. He would wait until after Trixie had done her talent show piece, then deal with the Greeves women.

A few other students had their turn, then Alexis was called to stage to the stage. She was dancing the Lilac Fairy piece from the Sleeping Beauty ballet, and had needed to switch outfits to do so, because Harley Quinn’s sows and wig just weren’t conducive to a fairly complex ballet solo. She finished and came off stage to applause, then dashed off to put her Harley Quinn outfit back on. Trixie waited, by herself now, with both Gemma and Alexis back in the crowd, with the rest of the talent show competitors. She was surprised not to see Mandy there, as all she’d talked about for weeks was her talent show entry. Trixie supposed she was intending to begin her performance from somewhere else, to make it as showy as possible. Finally, her name was called.

“Trixie Espinoza, accompanied on piano by Mr. Lucifer Morningstar, singing ‘Songbird’ by Fleetwood Mac.”

Trixie stepped forward, and with a brief glance, saw Lucifer sitting at the piano. She had originally planned to have one of her classmates play the piano, but that classmate had been in a skateboarding accident and broke their arm in two places, and had cracked their collar bone, and couldn’t play the piano at the moment. This had happened 2 weeks ago and at first she’d panicked, wondering if she could sing and play piano. Then it had clicked - she knew someone else who flawlessly played piano. After running it past the teachers who had organised the talent show - it had been okayed because her singing was the talent on display, she’d asked Lucifer, who had agreed.

Hearing the notes, she began to sing.

“ _For you, there’ll be no more crying_  
_For you, the sun will be shining_  
_And I feel that when I’m with you_  
_It’s alright, I know it’s right_

_To you, I’ll give the world_  
_To you, I’ll never be cold_  
_‘Cause I feel that when I’m with you_  
_It’s alright, I know it’s right_

_And the songbirds are singing_  
_Like they know the score_  
_And I love you, I love you, I love you_  
_Like never before_

_And I wish you all the love in the world_  
_But most of all, I wish it from myself_

_And the songbirds keep singing_  
_Like they know the score_  
_And I love you, I love you, I love you_  
_Like never before_  
_Like never before_  
_Like never before_.”

Chloe, hearing the song sung by her daughter, felt several tears run down her face. She was very glad she’d chosen waterproof mascara, because the two most precious beings in her life, coming together to put on a beautiful display, was making her rather emotional. Apart from her favoured ‘90s jams’ she liked Fleetwood Mac - they’d been a favourite of her father’s, and this song was particularly poignant as he used to sing it to her when she was little and she was having a bad day.

Trixie finished and with a tiny nod to Lucifer - she’d thank him after the awards were announced - she bowed and trotted off stage to join her friends again. She’s seen her mother’s face and hoped it had reminded her of Trixie’s grandfather in a good way, and also it was a nod to the fact that she knew her mother loved her no matter what happened or what she did.

Lucifer, having made his way back to Chloe, passed her a handkerchief - he’d suspected she’d need one when he’d agreed to play the song for Trixie in the first place once she’d explained the significance of the song to Chloe - and wrapped an arm securely around her while she dabbed at her face. He kissed the top of her head as she leaned against him.

“Are you okay?” he asked her quietly.

“Yeah - that was just really beautiful. Dad used to sing that song to me when I was little and having a bad day. He was a big Fleetwood fan - he’d play their albums on the record player on the weekends when he wasn’t working, or sometimes on a week night if he just wanted to relax. He’d dance with Mom, or me, or both of us, and it was just fun.” Chloe explained.

Suddenly the lights began to flash and strobe like downstairs in LUX and music blared far louder than necessary in the small space. Everyone looked around to see what was happening. A spotlight shone unsteadily on the centre of the room.

* * *

The strobe lights, the blaring music and the wobbly spotlight announced the beginning of Mandy’s performance. Trixie and her friends, the boys included, all stood to watch with incredulous expressions on their faces. Justin pointed to a woman dressed as Mary Poppins, who was one of the drama teachers, and one of the Talent Show organisers. She looked ready to chew rocks.

“Look at Ms. Symons. She’s not pleased that Mandy and her mom have taken over again,” he said, directing the other’s attention towards the teachers.

“Ouch! I would not want to be on the receiving end of her ire right now. I mean, usually Ms. Symons is really laid back, but I heard she had a run-in with Mandy-Pandy’s mom and it didn’t go how the Alison-monster wanted it to.” Gemma relayed this information. Having her mom on the PTA meant she learnt all kinds of things.

The volume of the music lowered, causing most of the room to sigh in relief. Whilst Salt ‘n’ Pepa were always a dance floor hit, there was only so much volume one’s eardrums could handle with the thumping bass of ‘Push It’.

“She looks like she’s having a seizure. Mandy, I mean. With the way her arms and legs are moving.” Trixie said, studying Mandy’s dancing.

“Either that or she’s being electrocuted.” This came from Alexis.

“Maybe there're invisible lasers and she’s trying to avoid them.” Andrew commented.

Tobias laughed and said, “Any of those are valid options.”

The song came to an end, and Mandy, who had realised most people were either laughing at her performance, or talking amongst themselves, bowed to signal the end. Those who were paying attention clap, and she staggered off.

“If you’re going to try to upstage someone, at least do a decent job of it,” Lucifer murmured to Chloe.

“If was a pretty poor attempt. Unfortunately, I think it’s mostly her mother’s doing - I’ve heard that Alison Greeves can make lives very difficult if she wants to. And she often wants to if things don’t go her way. That’s why Yolanda swapped us - she probably threatened to have Yolanda removed from the PTA, and she’d have influence with or, potentially, blackmail on, someone in a position to see Yolanda kicked off, despite the fact that she’s been the best head of the PTA they’ve had in years.” Chloe explained.

Lucifer nodded and looked over at Trixie and her friends. “Well, it seems that performance gave the Urchin and her friends a good laugh at least.”

The lights and sounds in the room were restored, and a furious-looking Mary Poppins stalked past Chloe and Lucifer, made her way over to the Goblin King and had a short, heated conversation that was mostly her and a lot of hand gestures. Shortly thereafter, the next student was called up on stage. Lucifer saw the sloppily dressed mermaid and her mother hovering near the doorway and excused himself to Chloe. “Back in a few minutes, Detective.”

He wove his way through the crowd, moving smoothly and directly towards his target. He slipped into a shadowy area near the doorway and listened for a moment.

“Mom - it wasn’t my fault. The music was too loud, and the tail of my costume kept getting stuck. This costume sucks - I don’t know why I couldn’t have just gone as a cheerleader. There were some really cute cheerleader costumes at the store,” Mandy said, sounding more than a little annoyed but also like she’d rather be doing something else.

“Everyone goes as a cheerleader! Did you see how many cheerleaders there is in there? There is nothing wrong with the costume - if you can’t wear it properly, then clearly the fault is with you. Admittedly, the music was a fraction louder than it needed to be, but that shouldn’t have had any impact on your dancing. You looked like a spider being electrocuted! I pay good money for you to take dance lessons and this is what I get in return.” Alison’s voice was like a whip, and Lucifer noticed Mandy visibly cringe from the verbal assault. He took a few steps in a circuitous route that allowed him to appear behind Alison and cleared his throat.

“Alison Greeves, is it?” he said, turning the charm factor to full blast.

Alison, who for various reasons was eternally single, licked her lips at the sight of him. He could do bad things to me and I wouldn’t mind a bit, she thought. She held out her hand. “Yes, I’m Alison. This is my daughter, Amanda. Who are you?”

“Daughter? I would have thought sister,” Lucifer said, taking her hand and flirting for a good cause, looking into her eyes and seeing something that immediately annoyed him. “I’m Lucifer Morningstar, proprietor of the nightclub downstairs, and owner of the building.” That wasn’t a lie, he’d earned enough from his other real estate and stock investments to buy the deed to the building a few years ago.

“ _The_ Lucifer Morningstar? Well, I heard them say you were a charmer, but the stories don’t do reality justice.” Alison, dressed as a fairy in a too-short mesh skirt over a too-tight pink and silver glittery leotard with glitter wings on the back, simpered. Mandy, who was always a little grossed out when her mom tried coming onto men, especially rich ones, shifted from foot to foot. She knew Lucifer was Trixie’s mom’s boyfriend. She missed being with Trixie and Alexis and Gemma, but her mom had made her get rid of all her old friends when she’d won custody from Mandy’s dad when they’d divorced. Mandy would have much preferred living with her dad - he was so much more laid back and didn’t try to force her to be anything but the baseball loving tomboy she had been.

“Yes, well - from what I just overheard, it seems the unflattering stories about you are more than true.” Lucifer’s voice turned from charming to scorching, and not in the fun way. Mandy looked up then, her interest in the conversation her mother was having piqued.

“What do you mean? You shouldn’t go listening to private conversations anyway,” Alison said, now flustered.

“It’s hardly a private conversation when you’re berating your daughter for something beyond her control rather loudly in a public area,” Lucifer said. “Besides, I own this building so it’s not really eavesdropping in my case.”

Alison blinked then. She had no idea if that was true, but who was he to tell her how to discipline her daughter. “Be that as it may, Mr Morningstar, she’s my child and I’ll discipline her as I see fit.”

Lucifer’s eyes flashed Hellfire, although Alison missed it. “Okay, but it’s my civic duty as the owner of this building to report any drug use or other impairment to the authorities.”

“What are you talking about?” Alison said at the same time as Mandy said, “You’re high again Mom?”

Lucifer looked at the girl, whose expression had turned from morose acceptance to outraged incredulity. “Most likely starting to come down - I’d say she’s almost ready for another hit.”

Mandy glowered at her mother. “This is why I want to live with Dad. I should be living with Dad where I can be who I want to be - not some doll for you to play with when the mood strikes.”

Chloe, who had seen where her Devil had gone to and had gone over to see what was happening, put a hand on Mandy’‘s shoulder. Speaking to Alison, her tone one that said she wouldn’t put up with any nonsense, she said, “I legally can’t let you have a minor in your custody whilst you’re using drugs, or coming down from a high. As a legally certified police office with the Los Angeles Police Department, I am placing the minor child, Amanda Greeves, into protective custody until such time as a suitable legal guardian can take her into theirs.”

Alison turned on her heel and headed towards the ladies' room. Chloe nudged Lucifer, and he walked forward and snagged Alison’s wrist. “Oh no, you don’t. No more highs for you - at least not until you face the music.”

Chloe looked at Mandy. “Hey - do you want me to call your dad for you?”

Mandy shook her head. “I’ll do it. But maybe you can reassure him I’m okay. I’d like to just wait for him somewhere quiet - I can’t go back in there after that performance. I’ll be braver next week when I have to go back to school.”

Chloe waited whilst the girl rang her father, and reassured him that she was fine, just a bit overwhelmed and wanting to go home. He arrived in 15 minutes and after a tearful (on Mandy’s end) exchange he thanks Chloe and Lucifer and took his daughter home, aiming one dark look at his ex-wife.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0eqzWD1HH8 - the dance Alexis performs, in case you are interested.


	16. Flying Purple People Eater

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The results of the Talent show, some trick or treating and some costume reveals. LUX gears up for it's big party.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for sticking with me folks. Not much more left now, but you will see the LUX party and maybe even a resolution between Mandy and Trixie & Co. in future chapters.

Trixie watched as Lucifer went over to Mandy’s mom and talked to her. She noticed that Mandy’s mom went from flirtatious to annoyed to downright mean-looking, shouting and waving her hands in the air. By this time Trixie’s mom had also headed over and appeared to be arresting Mandy’s mom, although where she’d gotten handcuffs from, Trixie was uncertain. She noted that Mandy looked upset and very tired, like she’d hit the very maximum of what she could handle for one day.

Trixie, who was not unkind or cruel by nature, felt sorry for her former friend, as she seemed to be having a particularly sucktacular time right now. She nudged both her friends, who also looked over and felt the same stirring of pity for Mandy that Trixie had. Despite her behaviour towards them in the last few years, they remembered her friendship from before that.

“Should we go over?” Gemma, who was decidedly the mother hen of the group, asked.

“Let’s not - it seems pretty hectic and Mandy might not want to see any of us right now. But we can contact her tomorrow maybe and just check to see if she’s okay. I mean, Trixie’s mom just arrested her mom, so something is clearly going on.” Alexis, who had a lot of experience with therapists and things of that nature put in. “Give her a night to sleep, then bombard her.”

Trixie nodded. “Yeah, I don’t imagine Mom would really like us to get too involved right now, but I’m sure tomorrow would be okay.” A bell chimed, diverting their attention back to the stage.

“Okay everyone. It’s time to announce the winners of the Talent Show and the other prizes being awarded tonight.” Juliana Symons, Drama Teacher, and one of the organisers and judges of the Talent Show announced. There had been quite a number of excellent performances, and a few lacklustre ones that had been done because the students needed the credit for class. As for Mandy Greeves’ performance, well, the girl couldn’t help it if her mother was determined to find talent where there simply wasn’t any.

In Juliana’s opinion, Miss Greeves would be much better off (and much happier too) if she was allowed to return to the baseball pitch she’d dominated as a child. Juliana had seen much of the fuss and bother Alison Greeves had caused near the entry to the ballroom, and she would endeavour to make sure the girl got back on the baseball team if she wanted it - she was married to the coach after all. Two of the other teachers had brought out a table covered in medallions and trophies.

“We’re going to start with the costume awards. Best Superhero Costume goes to... Joshua Tyrell for his Iron Man costume.” Joshua’s costume lit up and played the audio of Tony Stark’s computerised butler from the movies, as well as making several whooshing sounds as he moved around.

The awards continued on - Trixie, Alexis and Gemma won Best Trio Costume in a tie with the Jefferson triplets who each went as the separate components of Rock, Paper, Scissors.

“That’s an awesome costume idea!” Trixie said, talking to the triplet dressed as Paper.

“Thanks. We wanted to do something together because this is our senior year.” Paper nodded and moved off with his brothers.

They moved onto the Talent Show portion of the awards. Gemma, of course, won Best Dramatic Reading, which she wasn’t expecting even though she had been the best of everyone who’d done such a performance.

“I mean, I know I was better than the kid who read Dr Suess’s “The Places You’ll Go” in a complete monotone, but I didn’t think I’d win,” she confided to Tobias. Anyone who met Gemma discovered almost immediately that she was completely guileless, but also that she had a tendency to find herself or the things she did inferior to others. She was aware of it, and tried to stop herself from voicing or thinking those things, but sometimes it was hard.

They applauded politely as victory was snatched from Alexis by a younger student’s interpretive dance to a mash up of Halloween songs.

“You can’t win everything,” she said over the hissed complaints from her friends.

“Now there was a tie for Best Musical Performance. It was a bitter argument between the judges so we have decided to split it into Best Vocal Musical Performance, and Best Instrumental Music Performance. It means the winners will have to wait a bit longer for their awards, as we will have to get them made, but without further ado here are the winners. Best Instrumental Musical Performance goes to Haley Wilson for her resounding performance of ‘Thrift Shop’ on saxophone.”

Haley, dressed as Beetlejuice, had a look of surprise on her face as she headed to the stage to have her winning acknowledged. By this point Lucifer and Chloe had re-entered the room, Chloe hoping she hadn’t missed too much of the awards.

“On to the winner for Best Vocal Musical Performance. Trixie Espinoza for her beautiful rendition of ‘Song Bird’.” Juliana smiled as she saw the look of shock pass over Trixie’s face before she too made her way up onto the stage. Moving away from the microphone she said, “You had quite a few of the judges in tears, my dear girl. That was a lovely rendition of the song. Whoever you were singing it for is sure to be proud.”

Trixie wasn’t exactly sure what to say to that, so simply said, “Thank you, Ms. Symons.”

Both girls left the stage and went their separate ways. Chloe had to bury her face in Lucifer’s side for a minute. He gave her back the handkerchief he’d given her earlier, and she swiped at her eyes.

“Damn,” she muttered. “I’m so proud of her, and I promised myself I wouldn’t cry, but...”

Lucifer kissed her forehead. “Beatrice is someone to be proud of - a clever, talented young woman.”

Trixie, who was making her way over to her mother to double check that it was still okay for her to go with Alexis when the party was done, overheard this and smiled to herself. It was rare for Lucifer to call her by her name, whether it be Beatrice or Trixie, so she knew he was serious. She stepped closer and cleared her throat. “Hey Mom, Hey Lucifer.”

“Urchin,” Lucifer said, turning to face Trixie. “Congratulations on your award.”

“Thanks - I got another one with Gemma and Alexis. Best Trio Costume. We tied with triplets dressed up as Rock Paper Scissors.” Trixie told them, allowing her mother time to compose herself.

“That’s great, Monkey,” Chloe said, now able to speak properly. “I heard your song. It was lovely.”

“Thanks. I thought it might remind you of Grandpa though, so I hope you weren’t sad about that.”

“It did remind me of him, but I wasn’t sad about it.” Chloe hugged Trixie, just holding her for a few moments. Trixie hugged her mother back, knowing she’d been working really hard lately. Chloe released Trixie from the hug, stepping back and holding her at arms' length. “Are you still going to Alexis’ house when this is over?”

“I had come over to check that you were still okay with that?” Trixie asked.

“Sure, honey. Is your dad picking you up tomorrow?”

“Yeah, he is. Oh, I meant to show you - you were in the shower when he came by our place so I took photos of his costume.” Trixie pulled her phone out of her belt. She flicked through the various selfies and photos of costumed friends from the party so far until she found the photos of her father and Penny and Penny’s kids. She gave her phone to her mother. “Here.”

Chloe browsed through the photos of her ex-husband. He was dressed as Woody from Toy Story, with Penny dressed as Bo-Peep. She smiled when she saw the costumes of Penny’s two children - they’d dressed up as the little alien creatures from the movie. She gave the phone back to Trixie. Lucifer, who had seen the photos as well, asked, “Why is Daniel dressed as a cowboy?”

Trixie gaped at him. “Haven’t you seen Toy Story?”

Lucifer shook his head. Trixie sighed hugely and said, “I need to update your Pixar film education. The Toy Story movies are awesome. Next weekend we’re having a marathon.”

“Alright then,” Lucifer said, acquiescing to Trixie’s pleas. She grinned, bade them both farewell, and headed off into the crowd of teenagers once more.

“She’s serious, you know, about the movie marathon,” Chloe warned him.

“I know. I don’t mind, really. Besides, she won’t harp on about it if I simply agree to it and get it over with.”

“They’re not terrible movies, actually.”

* * *

Whilst Trixie and her friends were partying at the LUX building, other members of her extended family were enjoying Halloween festivities and beginning to prepare for the LUX party that night. 

Dan, Penny and Penny’s children, Katie and Harrison, embarked on a highly successful trick-or-treat session around the neighbourhood where Penny lived. The pumpkin-shaped containers both children held were overflowing with treats. So much so that Penny had needed to put some of them into the bag she carried as Bo-Peep so they didn’t drop them. 

“Mommy, can we have pizza?” Katie asked, turning big blue puppy dog eyes on her mother. She added, “The aliens were at the pizza place in the movies!”

Penny laughed but couldn’t argue the logic. She’d planned on pizzas or burgers, then a little of candy afterwards, so she said, “Well, I suppose you have been pretty good today. So… okay.”

Both children let out a whoop of happiness and high-fived each other. They’d managed to get along all evening so far and knew that provided they behaved, they could probably talk their way into ice-cream or more candy after dinner than their mother had originally planned. They made their way inside the house and Penny pointed to the kitchen bench. 

“Treat buckets!” she said, and Katie and Harrison put their buckets on the bench. “Okay, go get in your pjs while I sort out your treats and order dinner.” 

The children ran off to their bedrooms and Dan came to lean against the kitchen bench. “You want me to put the order through now?”

“You remember it?”

“One Pepperoni, one Californian, and a calzone for Harrison.”

“Very good.” Penny smiled at him. Dan opened up the app on his phone and put the pizza order through. Meanwhile, Penny pulled out two equal-sized containers and dumped the contents of one pumpkin out onto the bench. Sorting through it, she pulled out all the Laffy Taffy and anything sour. Harrison didn’t like the texture of Laffy Taffy, and wouldn’t eat the sour stuff. She had a secret stash of both her kids' favourite candies to top up their Halloween collections with if she couldn’t swap enough. Katie would eat the Laffy Taffy but didn’t like Kit-Kats, so she’d take Kit-Kat’s from Katie’s stash and put them in Harrison’s. 

She put all the candy minus the ones Harrison wouldn’t eat in one container and wrote his name on the label. She then did the same with Katie’s, pulling out 4 Kit-Kats and a single packet of Atomic Fireballs, which she thought was an odd choice to give kids. Katie’s candy went into its own container and both containers stood on the bench near the sink where she could monitor how much they ate. She’d needed to add Milk Duds and gummi bears to Harrison’s as he’d gotten quite a few of the sour gummis. Task completed, she heard small footsteps running back to the kitchen, soon joined by heavier adult ones.

Harrison appeared, freshly clad in his Spiderman pyjamas, bits of green paint still in his hair from his face paint, but otherwise looking fairly normal. Dan followed shortly after, now wearing jeans and a t-shirt instead of his cowboy outfit. 

“Momma, can I have just one candy now?” Harrison, blessed with long full eyelashes and doe eyes of hazel, asked his mother, an angelic smile on his face. Penny bent down and touched her forehead to his. 

“No. But your dinner will be here soon. Momma’s gotta go change - and no, you can’t bribe Dan for any either,” she said, voice rising from just above a whisper back to its normal tone at this. Dan grinned. Trixie had done much the same with chocolate cake when she was the same age. Harrison collapsed to the ground in a dramatic puddle, laughing. 

In a small movie theatre not far from where Jack lived, he and Ella lined up for tickets for the Halloween double-feature. The films would let out at 10pm, and that gave Ella just enough time to change costumes before they headed to LUX. Jack had gotten a good laugh from Ella’s dinosaur onesie outfit. The hood had googly eyes and glittery teeth. He was wearing a burgundy-coloured suit with a wig and fake moustache to look like Rod Burgundy from the Anchorman films. 

They made their way from the ticket booth to the concession stand. “Two popcorns, a packet of Skittles, a box of Sno Caps, a packet of Sour Patch Kids and 2 Sprites please.”

“Aww, you remembered the Sno Caps,” Ella said. She loved Sno Caps at the movies, especially since you couldn’t actually get them anywhere else. 

“Sure did.” Jack handed over the money to pay for their snacks and handed Ella her popcorn and Sprite. They made their way into Cinema 2 and found seats at the back. Soon thereafter the lights dimmed and a couple of advertisements for local businesses played, then a preview of the next themed showing in a few weeks - Hitchcock films - and then the lights went out fully.

On screen, as a passenger on a train, a young girl’s voice spoke: “Among the rugged peaks that frown down upon the Borgo Pass are found crumbling castles of a bygone age…”

Ella dug into her popcorn excitedly. She loved the old versions of the classics - this version of Dracula, and the one of Frankenstein from the same year, were in her opinion, standard go-to’s for Halloween. Not especially scary now, considering the quality of special effects these days, but true to their source material a way a lot of modern-day remakes weren’t. 

Soon she was caught up in the film, and after a quick bathroom break between films, she was sucked into the 1931 version of Frankenstein, with the scientist’s creation played so well by Boris Karloff. Eventually, the film ended and the lights slowly came up, allowing people’s eyes to adjust to the brightness slowly. 

“That was great,” she said as they walked out of the building and into the coolish night. 

“It was actually. I’ve seen bits and pieces of Dracula, but never seen it in its entirety. I mean, I read both Bram Stoker’s book - he’s Irish, it was pretty much a requirement in my household growing up - and Mary Shelley’s book, but I have seen that Frankenstein film when I was a lad. They’re classic films for a reason,” Jack agreed. “So, we need to swing by your place so you can change, am I correct?”

“Indeed, you are,” Ella said with a grin as they reached Jack’s car. 

Jack made his way through the subdued late-night traffic until they arrived at Ella’s apartment. She’d moved there about three and a half years ago and enjoyed the much more spacious area and that fact that she actually had a little courtyard where she had a couple of koi fish and another turtle in a pond. Her chicken Margaret had gone to a new owner who allowed Ella to visit her little chicken friend whenever she liked. 

Ella turned the lights on as she opened the door to her apartment. 

“Okay, I need to shower then change into my other costume,” Ella said. “You wanna wait here?”

Jack nodded. While he wasn’t opposed to joining Ella in the shower, he figured she’d want plenty of time to change into her outfit. Besides, he could always join her in the morning since they both had the next day off. Ella headed into her bedroom and tossed her onesie on the bed, stripping out of her underwear as she walked into her ensuite bathroom.

Twenty minutes later, she wiped steam off her mirror and blow-dried her hair, towel tucked firmly around her. She styled it so it would fit under the head-piece she was wearing with her costume, then did her make-up. Once that was done she stepped out into her bedroom and opened the wardrobe, pulling out a garment bag and shoes. She placed the garment bag on her bed and unzipped it, revealing the costume she’d worn several years ago in Vegas when she helped Lucifer solve a crime involving his ex-wife Candy. She and Candy had hit it off and kept in contact - Candy still had the costume and sent it to her a few weeks back. 

After donning the outfit, adjusting the head piece until it sat properly and putting on her shoes, she opened the bedroom door a crack. She called out to Jack, “You better close your eyes, so you get a pleasant surprise.”

Jack shifted his position on the couch where he’d been watching tv and closed his eyes, humouring Ella. “Okay, I’m ready.”

Ella stepped out of the bedroom and walked over to stand in front of him, a few feet away. “Open your eyes.”

Jack did, and they widened in surprise with a bit of lust thrown in the mix. “Wow, Ella, you look amazing!”

* * *

Linda made a last adjustment to her costume - it had been a few years since she’d dressed up for Halloween and this year she’d promised Charlie they could go trick-or-treating. Amenadiel was off doing errands. Charlie was decked out in his dinosaur costume (she really needed to thanks Ella for that) roaring and dancing around in the living room. Just then she heard the front door open and Charlie exclaim, “Daddy!”

She walked to the door of her bedroom and opened it, hearing the rest of her son’s conversation with his father.

“Momma’s gonna be a scientist, like Ella, but with dinosaurs. I am a Charlieosaurus!” he giggled and stomped his feet like a dinosaur. Amenadiel smiled at Charlie, enjoying the way his face lit up as he stomped around pretending to be a dinosaur. Charlie stopped abruptly in front of him and asked, “Daddy, what are you gonna be?”

Amenadiel knew this was coming and said, “That’s a surprise. I’ve got to go get my costume on now, then you can see.”

Linda emerged in the living room and watched them, smiling at Charlie. Amenadiel walked over to her, admiring her light blue shirt and khaki shorts.

“There’s some stuff in that bag that might be of use to a palaeontologist such as yourself,” he said, grinning and indicating the bag he’d left on the couch. “I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

Linda walked over to the couch to inspect the contents of the bag. Inside she found a large egg with a handle attached, and part of the top missing - as though something had been hatched. It had a big ‘C’ on it, and she realised it was for Charlie’s candy to go into. There was also a small stuffed-toy dinosaur and several plastic ones; a fake camera, a magnifying glass, a notepad and a utility belt she supposed these things would go in to.

She heard Charlie’s laughter and turned, letting out a laugh of her own when she saw Amenadiel’s outfit. He’d gone and found another dinosaur outfit similar to Charlie’s although his was green with lurid blue and yellow scales, rather than the blue with brown scales of Charlie’s outfit. “Look at Daddy’s outfit Momma.”

“Well, now I have two dinosaur specimens, don’t I?” Linda said, quirking an eyebrow at Amenadiel, who just smiled back at her in his usual unperturbed way.

“Can we go now, Momma?” Charlie asked, eager to see what Trick-Or-Treating was about. Trixie, his cousin but not cousin, had told him all about it, and this year his momma said he was old enough to go. Linda looked at her watch.

“Okay, let’s go then, my Charlieosaurus and Daddysaurus-Rex,” Linda said, heading out up the stairs to the front door.

They walked around the neighbourhood, greeting several other little and not-so-little Trick-Or-Treaters, exchanging compliments on costumes, tips on which houses had the best treats (Mr and Mrs Hennessy), which ones to just avoid (The Reynolds). The kids compared and occasionally swapped candy and other treats. Finally, after almost two hours, they headed for home, Amenadiel carrying a now very tired Charlie the last few blocks. Once inside, Amenadiel took off his son’s shoes, and sat him on the couch, where he almost immediately curled up into a small ball of dinosaur-boy. He then walked into the kitchen after Linda.

She put Charlie’s egg full of candy on the bench - she figured she’d better find a container for it in case his uncle Lucifer visited because it wouldn’t last long with the Devil in the house. She heard Amenadiel’s footsteps on the tiles of the kitchen floor and turned to look at him in his ridiculous dinosaur outfit. “Was your costume your mysterious errand?”

“I hadn’t picked it up - I forgot to be honest with you. Then when Charlie brought it up last night, I remembered I’d paid for it, I just needed to go collect it from the costume hire place. Then I saw a few other things I thought might add to your costume, and the egg for Charlie’s candy.” He moved past her and opened the freezer, pulling out a box. “I got these yesterday.”

Linda looked at the box and smiled. Dinosaur-shaped chicken nuggets. “Well, they certainly suit the theme at least. Let’s feed our boy then we can have a rest before going to LUX later.”

Later that evening Linda gave the usual instructions to the baby-sitter. “Phone numbers are on the fridge. Not sure when we’ll be home.”

Amenadiel, knowing Linda would stay for another hour to make sure everything was 100 percent okay, even when she knew it was, nudged her along and out the door. “Come on, we’ll be late.”

They had decided to go as a salt and pepper shaker set - Linda in a white dress she’d found on sale that showed just enough curve to not look like a sack, but not so tightly that she felt like a sausage, and a matching white jacket. Amenadiel was in a black turtle-neck, black pants and black jacket; Linda had an ‘S’ on her waist in silver tape, and Amenadiel had a ‘P’. Both wore silver hats - Linda’s was a cute little beret, and Amenadiel’s was a plastic-fedora style hat.

Back at LUX, the high-schoolers had begun to go home. Lt. Harmon, dressed in the casual attire of jeans, hiking boots and a jumper, made his way over to Chloe. “I hear you made an arrest tonight, Decker.”

“Ugh, yeah. One of the student’s mothers had been using and still had several grams of coke on her,” Chloe said, keeping her voice low so that the rest of the school didn’t hear Mandy’s family problems. “She got unreasonable when Lucifer was talking to her, and he figured out she was high still. It was pretty obvious, actually, since there were remnants of white power on the inside of her nose.”

Lt. Harmon nodded. “What about her kid?”

“Her dad came and got her. She has majority custody, but I think her ex-husband was just waiting to get something to reverse that,” Chloe explained.

“Well, I better go get the kids. Nice costume, Decker.” Lt. Harmon moved off to collect his son and daughter.

Trixie came back over to say goodbye. “Bye Mom. Have fun tonight. You’re gonna look amazing in your other outfit.”

“Thanks, honey. See you on Sunday.” Chloe gave Trixie a quick hug. “Have you seen Lucifer?”

“Yeah - he told me to tell you he needed to go check on the club, then he’d come to the penthouse.” Chloe nodded and let Trixie go, giving a wave to Alexis and Gemma who had waved to her. Deciding she was now done with her parental duties, she headed into the private elevator and upstairs to the penthouse.

As the doors opened into the apartment, she pulled the wig off her head and scratched her head furiously. Bending, she reached down and grabbed the bottom of her dress, tugging it until she pulled the whole thing off over her head. She walked into the bathroom in her underwear and studied her face in the mirror. With a sigh she wiped off the make-up she was currently wearing - she’d put fresh on once she’d changed. Turning so her back faced the mirror slightly, she undid the hooks on the structure-boosting underwear she was currently wearing and let it slide off. Standing in just her stockings and knickers, she walked back out of the bathroom and into the bedroom.

The bags that her second costume came in were on a chair in the corner, and she went over to them, and pulled out everything that she needed. The underwear for this outfit was trimmed to match it, in case it showed, although since it was a corset-like thing, Chloe hoped it wouldn’t show. After wrangling herself into it, she stood and looked in the mirror, adjusting in a few places until it sat properly. Then she pulled the dress out of its bag. She heard the elevator doors ping and Lucifer’s soft “Detective?”

“Bathroom.” Chloe said, grabbing the rest of her costume and closing the bathroom door. She heard his footsteps as he walked to the bedroom and then heard him walk inside his closet. She tugged on her dress - a silver sparkly 1920s-style jazz dancer's outfit right out of the movie Chicago.

Lucifer, immensely satisfied with how his staff were setting up LUX and that everything seemed to be functioning properly, had gone up to his penthouse to enjoy a little alone time with Chloe before they needed to head back down for the party at LUX. When the elevator doors had opened, he hadn’t seen her and called softly for her, not waiting to startle her if she’d been napping. He heard her reply and headed towards his bedroom, detouring into his walk-in closet. He found he suit he wanted - one he’d actually worn in the 1920s and had had re-tailored to suit his current fame. He removed the moustache, which he decided just wasn’t a look for him, and began to change from one suit into the other.

He wondered if he could self-actualise his stubble back - already he had a 5’oclock shadow forming and stared at himself in the mirror, imagining his usual facial hair situation. With no small surprise he found that he had brought himself back to his usual appearance. A movement from behind him caught his attention, and he turned. Chloe, dressed in a 1920s jazz singer/dancer’s outfit, stood at the entry of the closet, headpiece in hand. She looked amazing, long legs accentuated by the fringing on the hemline of the dress.

“Chloe....” his voice trailed off.


	17. Transylvanian Waltz

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lucifer gets to see Chloe's second costume, Deckerstar fluff, The LUX Halloween party and an appearance from Trixie.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for sticking with this one, everyone. I've been a bit unwell and a bit busy so it's taken a bit to get this chapter posted. We're almost at the end. 
> 
> *This is an outtake for this chapter. It has an M rating.   
> https://archiveofourown.org/works/29148468. It’s an outtake so this fic can keep its current rating.

The look on Lucifer’s face was all Chloe needed to know that she’d made the right decision costume-wise. His eyes widened just slightly, and he looked at her like he was looking at the most magnificent thing he’d every seen.

“Detective,” he repeated. “You look stunning.” He crossed to her and kissed her, adding a hint of what would come later, once they retired for the evening. Chloe broke the kiss before they go too carried away and wound up arrived very, very late to the party.

“You made your stubble come back?” she said, stroking a hand down his face. He looked slightly embarrassed but nodded. She smiled at him and held out the hairpiece that belonged to her costume. “Can you do this for me, please?”

“Certainly, darling,” he said, standing to one side so she could come into the wardrobe with him. He gestured to the stool at the end and she sat down. He opened the drawer where she kept her non-bathroom hair and styling equipment, and pulled out the tools he would require. After a few minutes she’d relaxed under his gentle handiwork - so much so he was actually surprised she was still awake.

Putting the last few hair pins in place, he picked up the hair piece and slid it gently into her hair. “There you go.”

Chloe studied herself in the mirror - she looked good, and the hair piece really finished off her outfit. She smiled at Lucifer in the mirror. “Thank you.”

“Not a problem, darling.” They stayed as they were for a few minutes, then Chloe sighed and stood.

“We’d better finish - I need to put my shoes on and do my make-up, then I’ll be ready.” They walked out of the closet together and into the bedroom. Chloe, still barefoot but for her stockings, padded into the bathroom to do her make-up. Lucifer sat on the bed and put on his shoes, then allowed himself to be entertained with imagining how he’d get Chloe out of that dress when the party downstairs was finished.

Chloe, now having finished in the bathroom, stopped in the doorway to watch Lucifer sitting on the side of the bed, arms propped behind him, eyes closed. She really didn’t want to go downstairs to the party now, but their friends were expecting them and she knew they’d be missed if they didn’t show. She sighed and walked over to him, standing between his legs and cupping his face, gently kissed him. His eyes opened and met hers, darkening as he looked into hers. Chloe rubbed his mouth with her thumb, wiping a small trace of her lipstick off them.

“We’d better go, or we’ll never get going,” Chloe said.

“Yes, we’d better. If you’re sure you want to. We could stay here, bugger the party.” Lucifer suggested, taking her hand and nibbling her fingers. She sighed heavily; it was very tempting, after this case, to just sequester herself up here with him and ignore everyone. But she’d missed Halloween last year, and she wasn’t missing out on the fun this year.

“After. We’ve got the whole weekend to ourselves, plus after he’d found his kids, the Lieutenant came back and told me if I showed up at work on Monday he’d dock my pay, so it’s a three-day weekend. Just us, no distractions.” She smiled at him. “Plus, if you’re really good I’ll let you get me drunk and have your way with me.”

“Well, then Detective, let’s go downstairs.” He stood, keeping their bodies entwined a moment longer before releasing her. Chloe slipped her feet into her shoes and they headed out of the bedroom and into the elevator. The doors closed, and the elevator whisked them gently down to LUX. When the doors reopened, it was to the blast of Halloween-themed music and a full dance floor of club patrons. Lucifer put a hand on Chloe’s back to guide her through the crush of the crowd and over to the reserved booth in the centre of the club, in front of where Lucifer’s piano normally stood. Tonight, though, it had been carefully put in the storage area where it was kept on the very rare occasions it needed to be stored, draped in cloths and tarps. The entire staff had breathed a sigh of relief after they’d been able to close the doors to the storage area. Causing any damage to Lucifer’s piano would have most likely cost them their job.

Amenadiel and Linda were already tucked into the booth, and they stood to greet Lucifer and Chloe. After a brief moment, Lucifer put their outfits, and the letters taped to their chests together and let out a bark of laughter.

“Table seasoning, brother?” Amenadiel shrugged. It was easy and had made Linda happy. Plus, it meant he could divest himself of the ridiculous dinosaur outfit before his younger brother could tease him about it.

“And what of you, Luci? Another suit?”

“Touché, brother. Touché.”

Whilst the angelic brothers teased each other good-naturedly, Linda complimented Chloe’s outfit. “That dress is amazing. I’m surprised you two even made it down here.”

A knowing smirk flickered across her face. Chloe chuckled. “It was a struggle, but I missed all this last year and I wanted to join in the fun.”

Linda nodded understandingly. She knew Chloe had been heavily involved in a case this time last year - so much so that she’s had to cancel all her Halloween plans, including the Halloween party at Trixie’s school. A waitress appeared at the table, brandishing a tray laden with their favourite drinks. A vodka martini for Linda, beer for Amenadiel, the top-shelf whiskey for Lucifer and a citrus-based vodka mixer for Chloe. The LUX staff knew their boss was in the club now and that his family and friends were to be served whatever their heart’s desired.

A gorgeous dark-haired woman in a Vegas-style showgirl outfit was cutting a path through the crowd, heading for the table, arm in arm with a tall, red-headed man in a burgundy suit.

“Is that Ella?” Chloe said, indicating the couple. Three heads swivelled to look where she was looking. Lucifer grinned.

“Indeed. Miss Lopez must have gotten that costume from Candy,” he said, referring to the woman who he’d married in an attempt to do something selfless years before. He explained further. “She wore it when we brought down the bad guy, after her and I went to Vegas after the police thought Candy had been killed.”

Chloe nodded. She knew the details of that trip and thought the outfit looked amazing on Ella. Ella and Jack reached the booth. “Hey Ella. Hey Jack.”

“Hey Decker!” Ella hugged Chloe. “Man, your costume is awesome!”

“Yours is pretty damn amazing as well.” Chloe returned the compliment as Ella reached over to embrace Linda.

“Salt and Pepper. That is so cute, Linda!” Ella’s happiness was bubbling over and it spilled out to affect her friends as well. Chloe and Linda smiled. Another member of the waitstaff appeared, holding Ella’s preferred brightly coloured cocktails, and a dark and foamy Guinness for Jack.

“So, are Maze and Eve coming?” Ella asked.

“They’re supposed to be. Maze said the demons can get a bit wild on Halloween though, so they might be late.” Linda said. The women sat, sipping their drinks whilst the men had an animated conversation about something or another. A song came on that had Ella springing up out of her seat and coaxing Jack out onto the dance floor, shimmying her hips. Lucifer came and sat next to Chloe, wrapping an arm around her to tuck her into his side. Chloe leaned her head against his shoulder, content to watch her friends dance for the time being.

After a while, two more people joined them. Maze and Eve had arrived. Maze, in leather and mesh, with knives shimmering at her waist, looked exactly like the demonness she was. Eve, her hair piled prettily on top of her head, looked like a Grecian goddess.

“Maze. Eve. How are you ladies this fine Halloween?” Lucifer asked them.

Maze shrugged but grinned. “Good. Had to discipline a few hordes before we came, so that was fun.”

Maze had made good on her promise to Lucifer. She and Eve mostly resided in Lucifer’s former palace in Hell, overseeing the demons and other denizens of Hell, allowing Lucifer to spend most of his time on Earth, with only short journeys to Hell when his presence as the King was required to sort out particularly difficult troublemakers or souls. He was able to go down, sort out the issue and come back home. Maze and Eve popped up to visit for short periods, sometimes just a few hours, sometimes for a few weeks, depending on how things were in Hell.

Eve ran a hand down Maze’s arm absently and spoke. “We should be able to stay for a couple of days. At least long enough for Trixie to see Maze and for Charlie to spend time with his Aunty Maze.”

“Well, Trix will be glad to see you, Maze. And you Eve.” Chloe said. “She took a million photos tonight so you can see her costume in all it’s glory.”

“Yeah. I was hoping to get here earlier, but disciplining the hordes had to happen.”

* * *

The DJ had switched to a slow song, and Chloe found herself being gently but firmly tugged from her seat by her Devil. She allowed him to pull her into a standing position then gently sweep her into a dance. She wasn’t sure what the song was, and if she was honest, didn’t care. It was just nice to have Lucifer’s hand at her lower back, the other holding her hand as he slowly led her in a circle around their booth. She had her free arm around his neck, fingers gently playing with the hair at the nape of his neck. He dipped his head towards her ear and whispered something that made her cheeks heat and her grip on his neck tighten. He laughed softly, pressing his lips to hers.

Apparently a lot of the club goers had the same idea as her and Lucifer, as many of them were entwined with each other. Those who hadn’t come with a partner or who weren’t looking for one, took the break in the dance music to get more drinks, take a bathroom break or just catch their breath. Many were eyeballing the two women - one dressed in leather, the other in gauzy white material who were wrapped around each other in a way that was so intimate it was almost uncomfortable, but none who watched could look away.

“It’s nice to see them so happy together, isn’t it? All of them,” Chloe said softly, knowing Lucifer could hear her every word. She was resting her head against his chest as they just swayed gently in place. Lucifer turned his head to look, and saw Maze and Eve wrapped around each other, Amenadiel and Linda gently swaying together opposite to where he stood with Chloe, and Ella, dwarfed by her Irishman, also dancing slowly to the current song.

“Yes, it is,” he agreed. It was nice to see his friends - no, his _family_ , happy. The jobs Chloe, Daniel, Ella and Jack did often caused them pain and sadness, especially his Detective and Miss Lopez. Linda was paid to listen to other’s pain and sadness and whilst she most usually helped them get past it, he knew there were clients that affected her more than others - himself included. Maze had finally broken down and explained to him, as best she could, all the things she felt since Eve had left and her mother had died and other events. Being able to see things from her perspective had allowed him to forgive her for betraying him with Michael and fix their relationship as well. Their current arrangement - Maze overseeing Hell with Eve to keep her company - and to keep her from becoming too hard, had been agreed upon after his Father’s tumultuous visit to Earth. Now, five years on, she was a much different and happier demon.

The song finished and a new one with a thumping bass beat started. Instead of steering Chloe back to the booth with their family, he steered her into the shadowy corner provided by the staircase that lead to the upper level of the club. He skimmed a hand down her back and cupped her lovely pert bum. They were well concealed, so she didn’t object and instead pressed her lips to his collarbone, nipping at him lightly. He really would have liked to just take her upstairs and tell everyone to sod off, but he knew they needed to stay for a bit longer yet.

He kissed her deeply, gently sucking her bottom lip and smearing what remained of her lipstick. She purred and gripped his hips under his jacket in response. She put her head back, allowing him more access to her neck, which he put to good use, trailing kisses along her jaw and neck. She ran her hands through his hair, loosening it slightly from its tightly structured form. He skimmed his fingers up her thigh, allowing his hands to rest back on her bum, cupping it firmly and pulling her against him.

At the booth, their absence was noted. The others knew they wouldn’t have actually left without saying goodbye.

“They’re probably off in a corner making out,” Maze said, throwing back yet another shot. Linda gave her a reproachful look. “What? You know it’s true. You have eyes, you must have seen how they’ve been looking at each other all night.”

Maze had a point. When he wasn’t looking at whoever he was speaking with, Lucifer had barely taken his eyes off Chloe, looking like she was a treasure he’d just uncovered and desperately wanted to get his hands on. Chloe, although usually more subtle in her affections, had also been starring at Lucifer like she wanted to strip him naked and have her way with him for most of the evening. Shortly after this conversation ended, the couple in question arrived back at the booth looking slightly rumpled and both were definitely less dignified than they had been prior.

Lucifer made a gesture and one of his staff soon appeared with another whiskey, and another round of drinks for everyone. He swallowed his whiskey in one swallow, the burn a good contrast to the taste of his Detective. He’d need substantially more whiskey to make it through until the end of the evening, so he desperately hoped the others would go home before that. His whiskey glass was quickly replenished, and he dismissed the waiter with a nod and a brief smile. Chloe was now sitting on his lap as there was not enough room for eight people in the booth when three of them were more than 6 ft tall.

After the current round of drinks, Linda yawned hugely. Considering it was now after 2am, Amenadiel decided this was a good time to go home. With an arm around Linda’s waist - she had indeed consumed a large amount of alcohol, he stood. “We should get going now, let the babysitter get home.”

Everyone bade them farewell, and they made their way towards the front doors of the club where the valet would be waiting with their car. Now there was six, but Lucifer made no move to shift Chloe from his lap, as he was enjoyed the sensation of having her back pressed against his chest while she had an animated conversation with Ella. Plus, she was hiding the fact that he was very much still aroused from their little dalliance near the staircase. Maze caught his eyes, and he grinned at her. She rolled her eyes but grinned back.

“Your usual accommodations are available,” Lucifer told her. He had a small apartment where she and Eve stayed when they were intending on spending more than a few hours away from Hell “Fridge and cupboards are fully stocked.”

“Thanks Luce,” Eve said, running her fingers through Maze’s hair and causing the demon to half-close her eyes.

After a while Chloe and Ella’s conversation waned, and Jack leaned close to Ella to speak to her. Whatever he’d said caused the forensic scientist to nod and stand. “Well, we’re going to go now. Great party Lucifer, as usual.”

“Thank you, darling.” He kissed her hand. “You look positively ravishing this evening.”

Ella laughed, recalling he’d said something similar in the casino in Vegas before they’d been kicked out of it. “Thanks. Bye, Chloe. Bye, Maze. Bye, Eve.”

Jack carried her headpiece - she’d removed it some time earlier. “See you all later.”

They too headed out to the front of the club. Now just Lucifer and Chloe, and Maze and Eve were left. Eve, taking pity on her former lover and good friend, said, “You two don’t need to babysit us. We’ll stay here for a bit longer - you guys go upstairs.”

Lucifer could have kissed her, and in fact leaned over and kissed Eve’s cheek. “Thank you.”

He helped Chloe to stand, and they made their way through the slightly thinner crowd to the elevator. It dinged softly when it arrived and they went in. The doors closed and they made their way up to the penthouse.

* * *

Whilst the adults were otherwise engaged at LUX, Trixie, Alexis and a few others walked out of the cinema, having just finished their viewing of Zombie Desperado 3, and were waiting for parents to come and collect them. 

“Well, the ending was kind of a let-down,” Tobias commented. He and Gemma had been holding hands since they got to the cinema, and were yet to let go except to but tickets and food. 

“Yeah, I mean they could have blown up Professor Gaulding’s lab, or destroyed the vats of formula or something. Instead of just letting everyone get infected and turn into zombies.”

“It was pretty cool how Molly Cotton drove that motorcycle off the cliff then it turned into a submergible device so she could reach Dash and Peanut though,” Trixie put in. She enjoyed those kinds of stunts - probably from her father’s love of action movies and Maze’s influence. She thought of Maze and Eve and wondered if they would make it to the party at LUX.

Her phone buzzed in its compartment on her belt and she took it out to see a text message. 

__

Hey Trix,

On our way to LUX now. Staying for a few days. See you tomorrow or the next day.

E & M.

Trixie grinned. She sent back a thumbs up emoji, then stuck her phone back in her pocket. Things must have been going well in Hell if they were going to be staying for a few days. That meant she’d actually get to see Maze rather than just video chat or text. Spotting Alexis’ mother’s car, she nudged her friend.

“Hey, your Mom is here,” she said, pointing.

“Oh, well, we’d better not keep her waiting,” Alexis said, tossing the last of the rubbish from her movie snack in a nearby bin. “See you guys later.”

Trixie and Alexis headed off to the Jones’s car. As they approached, Katie Jones lowered the window and put a finger to her lips. The girls nodded and walked up to the driver’s door quietly. 

“I’ve got the twins in the backseat. They’re finally asleep. We’re going home and your dad is going to take them,” Katie told them both in a voice barely above a whisper. “So please, please, be as quiet as you can get in the car.” The girls nodded and headed around to the other side. 

“I’ll get in the back,” Alexis said softly, indicating Trixie should get in the front seat. Trixie nodded and opened the car door as quietly as she could. She got in and slowly closed the door, pulling it closed as softly as she could. Alexis closed her door at the same time and everyone held their breath. Alexis’ 2-year-old twin sisters continued to sleep. 

Once they arrived at the Jones’ house, the girls headed inside. Trixie had dropped her overnight stuff off on the way to LUX earlier, and her bag was now safely tucked away in Alexis’s bedroom. Katie walked over to the microwave and pulled out three still steaming mugs.

“Lex, your Dad made hot chocolate,” she said.

“Yes!” Alexis and Trixie both said together. Alexis’s dad made hot chocolate from scratch and it was incredible. Katie smiled.

“So how was the party?”

“Oh, we won a costume award,” Alexis said. “And Gemma won her category in the talent show, and so did Trixie.”

“Well, that’s great. You didn’t win for your dance though, sweetie?”

“Nah, but it was good practise for the competition next month.” Alexis sipped her hot chocolate and sighed happily.

“What was the award you won for your costume?”

“We left the trophy with my Mom, but we tied for Best Trio Costume,” Trixie supplied. 

“Oh, that’s great, girls. How was the movie?” Katie asked, seeing they were beginning to tire, the excitement of their party and the lateness of the hour catching up to them. 

“The ending was definitely a letdown,” Alexis said, yawning hugely.

“Yeah,” Trixie agreed, draining the last of her hot chocolate. 

After a few minutes more of idle chatter, Katie looked at the girls and said, “Okay, bedtime. It’s nearly 1am.”

Trixie and Alexis went quietly up the stairs so they didn’t wake Alexis’ little brother. They changed out of their costumes and into their pyjamas. The fold-out sofa bed in Alexis’ room had been made up and Trixie climbed gratefully under the warm covers. She _was_ tired, she realised. 

“‘Night Trixie,” Alexis said, stifling another yawn.

“‘Night Alexis,” she replied. Both girls were asleep within minutes.


End file.
